Blazblue: Caliginous Ultimatum
by Talon Gerrard
Summary: The events of Chrono Phantasma have ended. Ragna is missing. Rachel has a request to make of Tsubaki: Kill Ragna the Bloodedge before he dies. "End there is the beginning. I have enclosed a contradiction of all. I beginning all. I will destroy everything. Is "blue" I am." The Blazblue (Characters listed update with latest chapter)
1. Prologue: Chrono Phantasma

**This is my first Blazblue fanfiction. The story takes place directly after the events of Chrono Phantasma. It is a direct interpretation of how I think the events after Chrono Phantasma would go happen. Please enjoy the story. I do not own any of the characters (except any possible oc's I might throw in) in the story, the name, or anything involving Blazblue. All rights go to Arc System Works.**

**Prologue**

"Ragna!"

"Brother!"

The battle against Takemikazuchi had finally ended. Celica and Ragna emerge from the monster with Nu, the 13th Prime-Field Device, Noel and Jin waiting for them outside. Ragna and Celica walk up to them with a smile.

"We're back," Ragna says. Celica turns to the copy of Nirvana standing behind her.

"We're safe now... Thank you Minerva."

"..." Too most, Minerva is just silently standing there, but Celica knows what she has to say.

"Celica, are you okay?" Noel asks, sincerely worried about Celica's well-being. Celica turns back towards Noel with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" Noel relieved looks to see Ragna sort of staring at her with a stern look on his face.

"How long were we gone?" he asks

"I'd say about two to three seconds…" Ragna's look loosens up.

"I see…" Noel looks at the girl in Ragna's arms that was Nu-13

"That girl…" Ragna looks down at Nu and turns to Celica.

"Yeah. We found her inside. Celica, would you mind healing her?"

"Of course. Just a second…" Celica gets ready to work when Hakumen quickly rushes to the scene.

"Fools… She is the source of all disaster. Cut her out of destiny and life alike." Ragna pulls Nu away from the masked warrior.

"Shut up, I've seen enough killing today." Hakumen then draws his sekigan blade.

"Then I shall inherit that duty. Step aside, Celica A. Mercury." Celica jumps in between Ragna, who was cradling Nu, and Hakumen.

"No... Don't kill her."

"That is one wish I cannot honor, Celica. The creature you hold will one day bring chaos upon us…" After Hakumen had said this, a voice emerged from behind.

"It seems the celebration has come to a close." Everyone turns towards the voice to find the Imperator standing behind the group. Jin was the first to speak up.

"Ah, almost forgot about you," Jin said, followed by Hakumen and Ragna.

"Imperator…"

"Saya!" Ragna sets Nu down and charges at the former leader of the Librarium. "This is it. I'm going to end you here," Ragna says.

"..." The Imperator does nothing but stand there, not even flinching. Ragna goes to swing at her but stops.

"Gr…"

"What is the matter? I will not dodge," she says. Suddenly, her eyes get wide and sadistic. "Or do you want me… Brother?"

"You…" Ragna says angrily. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't bring himself to hurt his sister. The younger sister he was so protective of when they were younger and living at the orphanage. The younger sister that he had taken care of when she had gotten sick. The Imperator's face saddens for a moment.

"You would still deny me, Brother? You still hate me?" The Imperator then looks into Ragna's eyes, "But I tell you, you will never be able to save me… ever." The instant the Imperator finishes speaking, pain flares in Ragna's back and a flash of red blurs his vision.

"Gahargh!" Nu's voice speaks into Ragna's ear from close behind.

"Don't say something so sad like "helping" me, Ragna…" Ragna spins around to face the silver-haired Murakumo Unit.

"Nu, you...!" Celica, Noel, and Jin all begin to rush to him.

"Ragna!"

"Ragna!"

"Brother!" Ragna crumples to the ground holding his wound. Hakumen jumps in and swings his sword.

"Zeiyah!" The blade slices right through Imperator with no resistance and the Imperator fades away. "What?!" The disembodied voice of the Imperator echoes in the air.

"The blade that can kill time… But how unfortunate. My time ended long ago…" The Imperator appears behind Hakumen, "Therefore, your blade will never reach me. This is your end, Susano'o Unit!"

"Wha-?!" Hakumen's voice is cut short as a portal swallows him in darkness and disappears along with him.

"Mr. Hakumen!" Celica shouts. She rushes to try and save him but was helpless to do anything. The Imperator speaks up yet again.

"You have returned… Phantom." Then the shadowy figure of the Phantom appears before the group and stands by the Imperator's side.

"..." Celica looks at the Phantom, the being that was her older sister.

"No. You're… kidding," she says. Noel Vermillion jumps in front of Jin and Celica.

"Celica, Major Kisaragi… Stand behind me…"

"Huh?" Jin says, clearly puzzled about what Noel was about to do. Noel takes a wide stance.

"Lux Sanctus… Summoning!" Noel shouts. In a flash of blinding, white light, she transforms into the 12th Prime-Field Device, Mu-12, "I will stop you right there!" The Imperator takes notice in Noel and smiles.

"Ah… Blade of the Godslayer. This is becoming quite interesting. I suppose I must put up a fight… I call upon thee once more, foul beast."

"Huh!?" Noel says. What could the Imperator be talking about? Takemikazuchi was already defeated. How could the Imperator have it fight again so soon? Then a murderous red aura emanates from just behind the Imperator and a form that looked that of the Black Beast emerged from one source...Ragna.

"Gaaaaah!" Ragna shouts. Pain filled his entire body, ravaging at his very soul as his Azure Grimoire went completely haywire. Jin and Noel look over at Ragna in horror.

"The Dark… One...?" Jin says.

"Jin, Noel… Please… Take Celica and get out of… here-!" The pain running through him made it nearly impossible to get the words out. "GUAAAAAAAH!" Celica tries to get closer to Ragna. She wanted to help him. He was in so much pain and there was nothing she could do ease him.

"Ragna!"

"RUN!" Jin draws Yukianesa, his ice katana and takes a fighting stance.

"Dammit, Noel. Take Celica and run," he orders.

"But-!"

"NOW! I'll take care of this… so back off, you scum!" Noel determined to help, takes a fighting stance as well.

"No. Minerva, you're in charge of Celica… take her with you."

"..." Minerva understood immediately and picked up Celica and takes off, Celica crying out in her arms.

"RAGNA!" She felt so helpless. All she wanted to do was help. But, there was nothing she was able to do in the end. Jin glares at Noel.

"You fool…"

"Major Kisaragi, I'm going to fight too. Besides… I can't leave Ragna here to die!" Jin swishes his hair defiantly and looks back towards his brother.

"Hmph, suit yourself… But just stay out of my way."

"You...idiots…! Gah!" Ragna says hanging on to what little sanity he had left. The ground underneath began to rumble and shake, the aura around Ragna becoming darker and more powerful. Noel looks to Ragna in shock. A smile crudely spreads across Jin's face.

"Ugh! Ragna!"

"Let's begin… Brother!" The Imperator notices something as the event begins and looks around.

"I see neither Hazama nor Relius… No matter, my pact with them expires along with the banquet," She turns to take her leave, "They have served me well… Perhaps the next time we meet, I will grant them a pleasant death as their reward. We go, Phantom," she says walking away from the chaos, the Phantom closely in tow.

"..."

"Wait! Eek!" Noel notices the Imperator leaving and makes an attempt to stop her only to get halted by Ragna.

"Run… Noel… I'll kill you…!"

"Ragna!"

The Imperator stood before the Master Unit. The wind blowing through her violet hair. After a moment of looking upon it, she spoke,

"Master Unit: Amaterasu…" she said, "How many times must you repeat this meaningless dream in order to be satisfied...? I regret not being able to destroy you… but the prologue is now over. Let us begin the ritual." She turns to the giant seithr monstrosity, Takemikazuchi, "Gigant, fulfill your purpose!" In response, the beast roared.

"Ahhhh!"

"Sin invented mankind… Become His messenger and gather all that remains of the old world, that you may become the vessel to create it anew. The Embryo…" She rose her hand to the sky and above her a blood red orb was taking form. "The day of reckoning has become the day we return to God… Only those chosen by the power of the Azure shall remain in this world. Tsukuyomi… The time has come to choose. Fulfill your destiny!" Just then, Rachel Alucard appears before the Tsukuyomi Unit,

"Tsukuyomi. Protect the Master Unit!" In response to her command, the Tsukuyomi Unit placed it Absolute Barrier upon the Master Unit. The Imperator looked upon it, disappointed.

"So that is your decision." The Imperator walks up before Rachel.

"Of course… As long as she is here, the world can be rebuilt from her memories… All we can hope to do in this twisted world, is to preserve the data."

"Have you still not learned after all these repetitions?!" the Imperator asks. She was slightly irritated by Rachel's demeanor. Rachel simply smiles and replies,

"This is a tedious, monotonous, incurably hideous place, our world… Yet I love it still.

"Being as high as yourself speaking of love… I am at a complete loss for words. Why do you not seek it, as well…? The Embryo which exists right here… The brand new Azure will be created…! The true Blazblue!"

"I will defeat you and obtain it, so fear not, Hades…" The Imperator smiles at Rachel's comment.

"Hmph… Even I would be unable to reach Amaterasu as Tsukuyomi protects her… But when all the entitled have disappeared, victory will be mine. The Black Beast will consume all, and the world will once more return to nothing," she says, her smile growing wider, " The state of "nothing"... That is my one and only desire. Rachel Alucard, I shall gift you death one day, as well."

"Then I shall present you with life. And I think that would be your end," Rachel remarks.

"I shant be deferred forever. Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come."

Kagura Mutsuki, the head of the Duodecim in the NOL, awaits in his office for Kokonoe, who had finally emerged from the infirmary. She had been watching the events of the fight with Takemikazuchi and onward in her lab and then looking over Jin and Noel after coming back from the carnage that was Ragna the Bloodedge. Kagura spoke as soon as she entered the room.

"So… What happened?" he asked. Kokonoe shuts the door behind her and turns to answer the question she had been given.

"The Imperator disappeared… Hazama and Relius are both MIA." She takes her special catnip candy out of her mouth and continued, "Seithr vanished… which means maintaining the cities that relied on it… basically all of them, is becoming extremely difficult. I've routed electricity to all of the Heirarchical cities from Sector Seven… But I doubt it will last long." Hibiki joins in on the conversation, taking to Kagura's side,

I will try to gather all of the survivors in one area, so we don't have to waste too much energy."

"Hmph, the fate of the world that relied too much on ars magus," Kagura said, thinking out loud.

"Not only that, despite the fact that the seithr is gone, the seithr-ization of those contaminated by it is still progressing. They will soon be consumed by that black sphere," Kokonoe explains.

"What is that… anyway?" Kagura asks.

"I have no idea, to be honest. Rachel called it the Embryo, but… its mass is close to zero. All I can do is say it's… something." Kagura, frustrated, pounds his desk,

"Damn… I don't understand anything…" Hibiki speaks up once more,

"The Librarium Head Quarters are in complete panic. Thanks to Lord Homura, it is still functioning, but only just. Most of the soldiers and guards have been reduced to seithr…" Hibiki says sadly, "Nevertheless, it is quite faint...but we are detecting a few wielders of ars magus…"

"That must've been what she meant by the "chosen ones"..." Kagura says, "Although it sounds like they were technically chosen, too. I can still use it, though barely. So, uhh… Whatever happened to that God?"

"The Master Unit is still hovering over the ruins of Ibukido along with that black sphere," Hibiki answered. Kagura turns to the two-tailed beast kin,

"Isn't there anything you can do Kokonoe…?" Kokonoe shakes her head.

"That thing is shielded by the Absolute Barrier of the Tsukuyomi Unit. No one can intervene upon what happens inside."

"I see… So, how're Noel and Jin doing?" Hibiki explained their conditions,

"Miss Noel escaped with minor injuries, but Major Kisaragi is in critical condition. Right now, Miss Celica is attempting to heal him with all of her powers… I suppose "magic" is really nice to have in times like these."

"She always pushes herself too hard… Try to find some time, and make her rest," Kagura orders.

"No worries there," Hibiki replies, "I check up on her once every three hours… Nonetheless, I've never seen Major Kisaragi in such a state before." Kagura turns back to Kokonoe, a question still burning in the back of his mind,

"So… where is the one responsible for that? Ragna the Bloodedge?"

"He disappeared without a trace," Kokonoe said, "I have absolutely no idea where he is… I have Tager on the mission, but I don't have much hope. Maybe he died…?" As the words left her mouth, a stillness was set in the room. The thought of the Grim Reaper being dead after all they had been through. Finally Kagura broke the silence,

"He's not dead. Heh, I just wish I knew what that idiot was up to."

Back in the infirmary, a slightly annoyed Celica was pushing a very worried Tsubaki out the door. Tsubaki had been wanting to watch over Jin the whole time Celica was working, and it was starting to become bothersome.

"Sorry, I'm not saying you're in my way or anything, but...?"

"Please, do not worry, Celica," Tsubaki said,"...Look after Jin for me… please." Celica gives Tsubaki an encouraging smile.

"Don't worry…! Leave it to me!" she says. With that, she returns to infirmary to get back to work on healing Jin. Tsubaki really cared about Jin. It frustrated her so much that she was not able to help him in his current condition. She punched the wall trying to let her anger out.

"Ugh...Jin…" She thought of all the things her and Jin had been through, between school and the events after his escape. It was almost all taken away from her. Almost taken away by one man. The thought ravaged the back of Tsubaki's mind.

"Ragna the Bloodedge…!"

"Does the wall make an adequate punching bag for you? This is very unlike you, Tsubaki." Tsubaki turns and sees Rachel standing behind her.

"...Rachel."

"Don't shed too many tears for Jin prematurely. The Hero always survives the story, after all," Rachel says playfully.

"I'm not in the mood for jokes right now." Rachel smiles at the comment.

"Oh dear, terrifying."

"I don't feel like talking to people right now… Would you mind leaving me alone?" Tsubaki begins to start off to get away from Rachel until the vampire speaks up once more.

"Where might you be going?"

"None of your business," Tsubaki replies coldly.

"Are you going to look for Ragna the Bloodedge?"

"Yes, I'm going to find him... And bring him to justice."

"Tell me, Tsubaki… What does Ragna look like to you. Through those clouded eyes of yours?"

"...Evil. Ragna the Bloodedge is the root of all evil in this world...!"

"Because he hurt Jin Kisaragi and Noel Vermillion?"

"That would be part of it. And if I said I hold no grudge against him, it would be a lie," Tsubaki takes a second to process her thoughts, "But I promised Jin… That I would inherit his responsibility, and defeat the Imperator and Ragna the Bloodedge… That was his will. To make sure that happens… That is what I live for."

"I see... then do you have time for a bit of advice?"

"What is it?"

"That classless, loutish fool, Ragna the Bloodedge, does not have much time allotted to him."

"Huh?"

"Whether or not you involve yourself, he will soon die."

"Ragna the Bloodedge is going to die...?" Tsubaki asked, "...Do you mean to tell me to let him go just because you said so?"

"I do not try to interfere with you. If you wish to kill him and can do so, then you may," Rachel replies, "I fear he's shouldering a heavy burden. A burden large enough and wide enough to swallow the whole world. A burden whose evil is slowly eating away at him. Which is why, Tsubaki… You and Jin Kisaragi need to defeat him. He must be slain before he dies."

"Kill him… before he dies?"

"That is why I have a request to make of you, wielder of the Zero-type Izayoi… The only blade that can destroy - us - the Chrono Phantasma. If he for whatever reason dies before you can sever his fate…" Rachel pauses taking in what she is about to say,"...Then you must kill me, Tsubaki Yayoi. That is the only way we can completely eradicate the evil within him…"

**That basically recaps everything from the end of Chrono Phantasma. Now the events of Caliginous Ultimatum can truly begin. I will be posting more of the story itself in due time. Until then, survive.**


	2. Chapter 1-Azure Tears

**This is my first Blazblue fan fiction. The story takes place directly after the events of Chrono Phantasma. It is a direct interpretation of how I think the events after Chrono Phantasma would happen. Please enjoy the story. I do not own any of the characters (except any oc's I might throw in) in the story, the name, or anything involving Blazblue. All rights go to Arc System Works.**

**Chapter 1**

**Azure Tears**

"You… idiots…! Gah!"

"Ugh! Ragna!"

"Let's begin… Brother!"

"I see neither Hazama nor Relius… No matter, my pact with them expires along with the banquet. They have served me well… Perhaps the next time we meet, I will grant them a pleasant death as their reward. We go, Phantom."

"..."

"Wait! Eek!"

"Run… Noel… I'll kill you…!"

"Ragna!" Noel faces back toward Ragna then looking back in the Imperator's direction for a second. She got away. Noel thought.

"Noel, don't waste your time on the likes of her. We have a bigger problem to take care of," Jin says. Noel scowls over to where the Imperator once was, but Jin was right. Ragna was completely out of control and had to be stopped.

"Right!"

"RAAUUUUUUUUGGH!" The ground shook as Ragna howled in pain, parts of his body were changing form. Most notably his right arm. His hand had turned into the shape of a giant, black claw. His eyes glowing red and his teeth had turned into neatly shaped fangs, similar to the ones depicted on the Black Beast.

"Alright, Brother! Allow me to ease your pain and end your misery!"

"Jin…! Get out of here!" Ragna warns, but Jin was much too excited.

"You want me to leave, Brother?" Jin laughed, "Why would I do that? This is finally my chance to fight you at your full strength! I've always wanted to fight you at your full strength, but you've always been holding back. I'm going to finally prove to you... that I'm stronger! This is the day I finally get to kill you, Brother!" Jin lunged forward with incredible speed with Yukianesa drawn.

"Major! Wait!" Noel shouts, but by that time it was too late. Jin was already on the attack, leaving Noel with no choice but to go in after him and help. Ragna sees them coming, despite his warnings.

No. Get away! Ragna thought. I don't want to… to hurt you… Jin was already slicing away at Ragna, Ragna, trying to keep his sanity, did his best to defend. But, the more Jin attacked, the more anger that set into Ragna's mind.

"You're still holding back, Brother? Why be so cruel? This is no fun at all!"

His mind eventually began to be clouded by rage. Rage invoked by the out of control Azure Grimoire.

Get… back… I'm gonna… kill you… Right before Jin's next attack, a huge burst of energy exploded around Ragna, knocking Jin and Noel backwards. "GAAAAAAAAAAH!" Ragna shouts. His voice changed to an evil, demonic tone. He then drew his Bloodscythe and took a fighting stance, breathing heavily.

"That's more like it, Brother! Fight me with everything you have!"

"Jin… I'm gonna kill you…" Noel stands next to Jin, ready for Ragna to attack. Jin notices her and scowls.

"Back off! I'm not letting you interfere with this fight, you piece of trash.

"But, Major!"

"You really don't listen that well, do you? I'll tell you this one more time. He's mine. I, and I alone, will be the one to kill him! You understand?!"

"Major! You can't do this alone!"

"Watch me!" With that, Jin charges forward again. However, Ragna wasn't having it this time. Jin summons a shard of ice and rides on it straight towards Ragna. Ragna simply roars in defiance. He leaps up towards Jin and fires a powerful straight punch, driving the thaumaturge straight into the ground. Jin slides back a good distance before stopping. He stands up and wipes the blood from his mouth and smiles. Him and Ragna charge forward at each other, blades drawn. Jin jumps and dive rolls over Ragna and slices Yukianesa at the ground.

"Arctic Dagger!" As he slices, a frozen wind presses forth, freezing the air and the ground in front of him instantly. Ragna takes the brunt of the attack and jumps straight into the air.

"Belial Edge!" Ragna shoots straight down at Jin with his blade.

"Too slow!" Jin says. He had already created his ice bow and his frozen arrows set. He let's his Hiyoku Getsumei go and the arrow fires one right after another, directly at Ragna. To Jin's surprise, however, Ragna's attack continued. Ragna's blade caught Jin in the shoulder, causing him to feel quite a bit of pain. The blade followed through straight into the ground, cracks spreading around where the blade had been driven into. Ragna effortlessly pulls his sword out and continued to attack Jin relentlessly. Jin managed to dodge the attacks and gain some space. He jumps up and fires ice blades towards Ragna, which Ragna easily deflected. Jin flew over Ragna on a shard of ice to try and catch him off guard once more, but Ragna wasn't about to be fooled twice.

"That's not going to work again, idiot!" Ragna says. He times Jin's landing and prepares to attack. "Carnage…" Ragna charges forward and brings his blade across Jin's stomach, then whipping it back around and knocking Jin back up into the air.

"Major!" Noel helplessly watched from the sidelines. She wanted to do something, but if she did, Jin would kill her for sure. Jin stands back up, a little shaky. He took a lot of damage from that last attack.

"Don't worry about me. I can still fight. Just stay where you are!" Noel was becoming frustrated at the major's stubbornness. Although Jin didn't see it, Noel knew that if Jin continued to fight alone, he would end up getting killed.

"I'll smash you…" Ragna said firing a straight punch forward as he unleashed his Hell's Fang, "...to pieces!" Ragna finished his attack with a Dead Spike, hitting hard into Jin's gut, knocking him back again. He quickly recovered only to find Ragna flying forward with his fist, attacking with Gauntlet Hades. The punch hit Jin directly in the head and Ragna followed the attack with a spin kick, knocking Jin back up into the air once more. However this wasn't the end of Ragna's attack. Ragna swung his blade around and up into Jin unleashing the devastating power of Inferno Divider, following it with a punch straight up into Jin. Jin thought it was over, as he began to fall back to the ground, until he gets hit with another straight punch. Jin lands struggles back up to his feet. Ragna picks him up by his collar and raises his blade to Jin's face. Before Ragna can jab the enormous slab of metal into him, Jin breaks from the hold and kicks off of him. He finally has some space between him and Ragna. At this point, Jin knew that at the rate this fight was going he would end up getting killed if he didn't do something big. He was left with no other choice it seemed. As Ragna came after Jin again, Jin crouched low to the ground, Yukianesa at the ready. As soon as Ragna got close enough Jin impaled Yukianesa into the ground.

"Freeze eternal! Arctic Dungeon!" As his blade drove into the ground, giant spires of ice shot straight up towards the sky. Frozen inside, Ragna stood still, stuck in mid-charge. Jin breathed heavily, tired from the fight he had just endured. It wasn't over yet, though. He still had to seal the deal. He drew Yukianesa out from the ground, and as he went slash it, he heard a strange noise.

CRACK

"Wha-?!" Jin's voice was cut off short by a giant red claw breaking out of the ice and slashing across his face.

"Let the darkness consume you…"

Ragna shatters the rest of the ice as he brings his claw back around and slashing upward, followed by even more claws firing up from the ground, scratching and slashing Jin as they went by. Jin fell to the ground, blood pouring out from cuts all over his body, his uniform torn to shreds. He tries to stand, struggling to even get to a knee.

"I'm… ugh… not finished… yet… Brother…"

"Good. Neither am I," Ragna says drawing Bloodscythe again. He slices it up into Jin and darkness spreads all around them, turning everything black except for Jin and Ragna. "Black Onslaught!" Jin, completely stunned, was unable to do anything. The handle of Bloodscythe extended and the sword flipped around, dark energy forming at the end to create a curved blade, transforming into the weapon for which is was named. Ragna wielded the scythe with great precision, power, and skill, slashing away at Jin repeatedly. With each hit, a piece of Jin's soul was drained and absorbed into the blade until it the weapon and Ragna both turned completely black, Jin's soul still being sucked out by the scythe. As Ragna brought the blade back around for the final strike, it transformed back into a sword. He lunged the sword forward but he didn't hit his mark.

"Aaaagh!" Noel had jumped in and pushed Jin aside, taking the hit. Though, damage wasn't devastating to her it was still extremely painful, but it wasn't enough to keep her down for very long.

"Noel…?!"

"No… you idiot…" Jin said, barely conscious.

"Ugh…" Noel got to her feet and faced Ragna, "Ragna! It doesn't have to be this way!" Ragna just glared at her, his eyes shrouded in a dark red aura. "I know you're still in there, Ragna! This isn't you! It's the Azure! The Black Beast that's doing this! If you can hear me, fight back, Ragna!" At first there was silence. Then Ragna spoke,

"You really are stupid, aren't you?"

"Huh?!"

"Yeah, I can hear you loud and clear. You're right, but wrong in some cases."

"What do you mean?"

"You're right when you say that it's the Azure doing this, that it's really the Black Beast and not me. But, what you fail to understand is that I AM the Black Beast. I AM the Azure. I AM Ragna the Bloodedge!"

"No!" Noel shouted, tears beginning to stream down her face.

"Heeiyah!" Ragna charges at Noel. Noel, in Kusanagi form, summons a Steins Gunner and it fires at Ragna, hitting him in his left arm. "AAAAUUUGH!" Ragna stutters back for a second and looked at his arm, then looks back at where Noel was standing to find both her and Jin had disappeared. A strange feeling welled up inside of Ragna. He wasn't sure if it was rage or relief. "Hmph," he said.

"Do not fret. You will see them again, in due time, Brother."

**That concludes the first chapter of Blazblue: Caliginous Ultimatum. I hope you enjoyed it! I'll be writing up more chapters whenever I have the time. It's nice hearing the thoughts of the viewers, so tell me what you think in the review section below. It would be greatly appreciated. Until the next chapter, I bid you farewell.**


	3. Chapter 2-Chosen of the Azure

**Sorry it took so long, but I finally did the next chapter of BB: CU! If you stuck with the story, then you're awesome. I have no clue how long it will be until I post the next chapter. I have a pretty weird schedule. Just keep an eye out and I'll try to get it done within reasonable time! I do not own any of the characters (except any OC's I might throw in), the story, the name, or anything involving Blazblue. All rights go to Arc System Works. Enjoy the story!**

**Chapter 2**

**Chosen of the Azure**

Iron Tager walks through barren streets of Ikaruga, carrying out the orders that were given to him by Kokonoe. His orders were seemingly simple: Find the Chosen of the Azure. Going by that fact that everyone's souls were taken from them, it would be safe to assume that the Chosen of the Azure would be any survivors. However, it was a lot harder to do than originally thought. So far, Tager wasn't picking up any human life on his scanners in the city, not including everyone back at the Branch, and so far, no signs of Ragna's Azure Grimoire either. Right now, Makoto is back in Kagutsuchi looking for survivors their as well, and is to report to Kokonoe immediately if she finds anyone.

_Sigh _"I wonder if Makoto's having better luck than I am," Just as Tager says that, his phone begins to buzz on his belt. He picks up the tiny device in his giant fingers and flips it open, "Kokonoe? Anything new?"

"About the whole Chosen of the Azure thing, nothing. However, Makoto, somehow managed to get herself stuck in a tight space. I need you to get over to her location and help her out. As much as I hate to put your mission on hold, you're the only one that can get there in an hour."

"Understood. I'll head over immediately," Tager responds.

"Good. Come straight back as soon as you're done," And with a click, the call ends. Tager closes the small flip phone and hooks it back onto his belt.

"Well, I guess that answers my question," Tager says to himself. Unfortunately, Tager wasn't able to fly, but thanks to some improved rocket thrusters Kokonoe modified onto his boots, he was able to cover great distances with single bounds. Tager crouches down and has he begins to leap, his thrusters activate, launching him high into the air. The forward momentum of his initial jump was multiplied as well from the thrusters as he zoomed forward at great speeds. The wind was blowing so hard against him that he almost lost his balance, but he managed to get back control. He hadn't quite gotten used to the whole flying forward thing, but he felt he starting to get the hang of it. And then it hit him as he reached the apex of his jump's arc. The landing. He began to lose altitude, faster, and faster. He was used to falling from great heights. He did it all the time when he has to jump from the hangar and start his mission. However, he had never had to fall and land with any sort of forward momentum. As the ground approached Tager braced for impact. He hit the ground, trying to land on his feet. Thankfully, trying to land wasn't as hard as originally thought. When he touched down, he had just enough slide to keep him from falling forward and tumble to the ground. Satisfied, Tager gears up for another leap and continues his trek to Kagutsuchi.

After about an hour, he finally touches down in the 13th Heirarchical City, just as Kokonoe predicted. He immediately picks up a reading from Makoto and begins to close in on her coordinates. He gets to where the coordinates take him and comes upon two tall building built side by side, but doesn't see Makoto. He searches around the buildings and inside them, but one look inside the buildings shows that there was no where to get stuck as the insides were completely decimated. He comes back to where the coordinates took him originally and begins to call out Makoto's name to try and see if he could get a response.

"Tager? Is that you?" Tager jumps around to face where the voice came from, but still doesn't see her anywhere.

"Yes. Where in the world are you? I'm picking you up on my scanners, but I don't see you anywhere."

"I'm in between the buildings, you big lug!" Tager's eyes widened as she says this. The one place he didn't look, he felt so stupid. It was a bit dark, but he peeks in between the two buildings and sure enough, Makoto was in between them. Tager takes a step back and holds his forehead in his hand as if he had a headache.

"I'm afraid to know the answer, but Makoto, how did you manage to get yourself stuck in between the buildings?"

"Well, um, that's a funny story actually! I, um, well. My boobs are too big…"

"Are you serious..?"

"Yes… Please help me…"

"If you don't fit, then how did you get in between the buildings to begin with?"

"Well, I was able to slide in between them just fine at the start, but as I moved further and further back, the space started getting thinner. I think one of the walls are angled. As the space got thinner, it was getting harder and harder to slide against them, but I figured my boobs would squish down enough for me to get all the way back. And before I knew it, my boobs were pressed down so much that I got stuck." Upon further analysis, Tager saw that one of the walls were angled inward slightly. He needed to get Makoto out somehow. As he started to devise up plans of action, one key factor kept him having to go back to the drawing board. There was no way that someone as large as him would be able to fit in between such a small space. Heck, even his index finger alone was almost as wide as Makoto's waste, so how would even fit a hand in there to begin with? He thought about breaking apart one of the walls from the inside, but the interiors of the buildings are so mashed up that the building itself would collapse. Then he got an idea.

"Makoto, can you move anything at all?"

"I can move my arms and legs, sorta."

"That will work. I'm going to try to push apart the buildings from the foundations just enough for you to get out."

"Seriously?! You can do that?!"

"We're about to find out." And with that, Tager places a hand on each building and begins to push. The walls began to crack under the pressure. Putting all of his strength into it Tager pushed even harder. The buildings began to creak and the ground began to shake as the buildings slowly started move from their foundations. The pressure on Makoto's chest began to disappear, and finally being able to move, made her way out from between the buildings. Once she was out, Tager let go of the buildings and collapsed to a knee, clearly exasperated. "Are you… alright..?" Tager asks through heavy breaths.

"That… was… AMAZING! You are the coolest person ever! Well, besides me that is," Makoto says with a smile.

"Gee… Thanks…" Tager stands up after he catches his breath and faces Makoto, "Why did you try to get back there, anyway?"

"Oh! I almost forgot! I saw someone go back there!"

"What?!"

"Yeah! I tried to follow the person back there and got stuck. The person made it through with almost no problem, and after I got stuck, the person sort of sat there and watched me until you got here. It was really creeping me out…"

"Could you make out anything of this person?"

"No. The person moved too fast for me to be able to make any description, and it was too dark to see any detail in between those buildings."

"Alright. I must report this to Kokonoe immediately." Tager walks out a little bit to talk on the call Kokonoe. Makoto goes back to the buildings and looks in between them. On the other side, she can see a dark figure, probably the person from before. They sat there looking at each other for a solid minute before Tager came back from his phone call, "Makoto? What are you doing?"

"Oh! You're back! What did Kokonoe say?"

"What do you think? Capture the target and get the target back to Ikaruga immediately." Makoto looks back in between the buildings. The figure was still there, thankfully.

"Tager, be very careful and look over to the other side."

"Why?"

"Just do it," Tager gives Makoto a puzzled look, sighs and shrugs, and then looks in between the buildings. To his surprise he saw the figure sitting in the back on the other side of the space.

"Ah, that must be the person you were talking about before."

"Yeah. Can you make out anything?"

"Yes. Kokonoe installed night vision optics into my glasses along with optical zoom. However, the space is too small to make out a whole bunch. Also, the person is hiding most of itself behind the wall."

"Hmm. Only if we could only get over there somehow, or try to get the person to come out. Maybe we can talk to the person?"

"I think that would be our best option," Tager turns back to the space between the buildings to try to make contact, "Attention, unidentified person! We are agents of Sector 7! We are searching for survivors of the previous incident that has seemed to have wiped out much of the world. You need to come with us immediately so we may take you back to Ikaruga. You will not be harmed as long as you come with us peacefully," Tager waits for a response, but hears nothing. The person doesn't even move from its spot, "Please come out of there or we will be forced to take action and get you out ourselves. I repeat, we do not wish to harm you in any way," Tager waits for a response once more, but still hears nothing. Then he sees the person move away, "Wait! Come back!" After a few seconds, the person comes back into view and something flies forward at Tager and smacks him hard in the forehead, "OUCH!" Makoto looks down to find a rock lying in between Tager's feet.

"What the…" Makoto says.

"Alright. If that's the way you want to be, I am forced to take action to retrieve you!" Tager rears back a fist to punch the one of the buildings, but before he goes to hit it, Makoto stops him.

"Tager, wait! Look at this," Makoto says. Tager turns and looks at the rock Makoto held in her hands. When he got a good look at it, he saw something was written on the rock: "I don't trust you." Tager turns back to the space,

"If that's all you had to say, was it really necessary to throw a rock at me?!" In response to that, Tager gets another rock to the forehead, "GAOH!" Tager looks down frustrated and reads the rock that was just thrown at him: "Yes. It's funny."

"It is not in the least a bit funny!" Then a third rock nails him in the forehead. Tager reads it: "Lol."

"You have to admit, he's got pretty good aim to hit you in the same place three times in row," Makoto jokes. Tager growls in frustration,

"All right! That's it! I'm breaking down these buildings and coming after you!"

"Tager, wait. Let me try," Makoto says.

"Go right ahead. Don't be surprised if you get a rock to the forehead," Tager moves to the side and Makoto walks up to the space.

"Hey there," Makoto says in a sweet, gentle tone, "Sorry about him. He's not much of a people person. But, everything he said before was true. We're just searching for people that survived the previous incident. We just want to take you back to Ikaruga so we can give you a safe place to stay. Good food, a warm bed, and there's plenty of friendly people to meet! You must be pretty scared after what just happened, and I think it's safe to say that we all are. We just want to keep you safe. Can you please come out?" The figure stayed still for a moment, but then it began to shuffle. Makoto saw the person start to slide between the space. She watched excitedly as the person started to come out and eventually the person's features came into full view as he finally makes it out to the their side.

"Seriously? I said almost the exact same thing, but he listens to you?"

"Well you are kind of intimidating, Tager," Makoto replies. Getting a better look at the person, Makoto saw a young man, about 18 years old or so, stood a little more than five and half feet tall, dirty blonde hair, and dark green eyes. He wore a tattered shirt and cargo shorts. His shoes were in pretty decent shape. He seemed to have a pretty athletic build to him.

"Well it doesn't matter. Just as long as we got him out. Now we need to get him back to Ikaruga," Tager says. Makoto turns to the young man next to her,

"Um, would you mind coming with us?"

"..." The young man says nothing. He just stares at Makoto with a piercing look in his eyes. Tager takes the phone off of his belt and calls Kokonoe,

"Kokonoe. We have the target. We will begin heading back to Ikaruga."

"Good work. But don't worry about coming all the way back here. I finally fixed the spatial transporter to where it can teleport multiple people. Talk about convenient timing, wouldn't you say?"

"Very. That makes things a lot easier."

"I'm entering your coordinates now. Get ready for spatial transportation in 30 seconds."

"All right. I will get the other two," With that, Tager hangs up and place the phone back on his belt. He makes his way back to Makoto and the young man, "O.K. Prepare yourselves for spatial transportation in t-minus 24.3 seconds." The three stood together, and then came a snap and crackle of electricity. Then suddenly a hole opened up around them and within a few seconds, they were back at the NOL Branch in Ikaruga.

"Welcome back," Kokonoe says with her Cheshire cat smile. She takes a look at the young man in between Tager and Makoto to find him giving her a piercing stare, "So, kid, what's your name?"

"..." He continues to stay silent.

"Not very talkative are you? Oh well. I'll get data from you one way or another." That comment kind of worried Makoto. When it comes to Kokonoe, who knows what she means by "one way or another"? "Well, let me explain this to you. You are obviously a survivor of the previous incident, and you being a survivor means you are something called a "Chosen of the Azure". We are not entirely sure what this means yet, but it's pretty safe to assume it's pretty damn important. So until we figure things out, we need to keep you alive at all costs. So don't be going and doing something stupid that gets you killed while you're with us. Got it?"

"..."

"I'll take that as a yes… Makoto. Take him to one of the rooms we got set up for him to stay in."

"Alright," Makoto turns to face the young man, "Follow me. I'm going to show you to your new room!" she says with a smile. She turns to leave and the young man follows. As they walk past, the young man pats a hand just above Kokonoe's chest. Startled she jumps back a little, but sees a slip of paper slide off her where the young man's hand was. She picks it up off the floor to see it read: "Gannon Nalaar". Kokonoe smiles.

"Gannon, huh?"

**That just about does it for chapter 2. I hope you enjoyed the story so far, and I will try to get the next chapter out a little faster next time around. Remember to favorite the story and tell me your thoughts in the review section below! Until next time, I bid you farewell.**


	4. Chapter 3-Frozen Heart

**Welcome to Chapter 3 of Blazblue: Caliginous Ultimatum! I'm really excited to get this chapter underway. I hope you are enjoying the story so far. Remember, if you want to have your own OC be part of the story, just let me know and I'll see if I am able to fit yours in! I do not own any of the characters (except any personal OC's I might throw in), the story, the name, or anything involving Blazblue. All rights go to Arc System Works. Enjoy the story!**

**Chapter 3**

**Frozen Heart**

"_Freeze eternal! Arctic Dungeon!"_

_CRACK_

"_Wha-?!"_

"_Let the darkness consume you…"_

"_I'm… ugh… not finished… yet… Brother…"_

"_Good. Neither am I."_

_Unh… Brother…_

_Brother…_

"BROTHER!" Jin jolted up. He was breathing heavily and in a cold sweat. Jin leaned forward and held his head for a moment until a voice snapped him back from his thoughts,

"Jin. Are you O.K.?"

"What?" Jin looks over to find Celica sitting next to him. He takes another look around and realizes he's lying in bed in a medical room covered in bandages. "Whoa… Deja vu…"

"It's good to see you're finally awake. Do you need anything?"

"Finally? How long was I out?"

"For a few days." Jin turns back forward and curses under his breath. A few days? But how? Then it hit him. The dream he had while he was out wasn't really a dream. He remembered Noel blocking Ragna's attack and carried him off once she got Ragna distracted. Rage began to boil up inside him as it all started coming back to him.

"That bitch… I told her to stay back!" Jin starts to get up, but is stopped by a sharp pain shooting throughout the entire right side of his rib cage.

"Jin! You shouldn't be trying to move just yet! I haven't gotten you fully healed. And you should tell Noel thank you. She saved your life! And the first thing you do is start insulting her when you wake up! She's came in and checked in on you everyday to see how you were doing."

"That doesn't matter! I would have rather died than let HER save me."

"Jin Kisaragi! That is a really mean thing to say! What if Noel heard you say something like that? Do you know how bad it would hurt her feelings?"

"Don't worry. I've been told things a lot worse than that from people a lot worse than him," Jin and Celica turn to see Noel entering the room, "I'm just glad to see he's O.K.," she says with a smile. Jin just glares at her. Noel walks over and sits next to Celica. Celica notices the glare that Jin was giving Noel,

"Jin Kisaragi. Wipe that looks off your face right now, mister, or so help me I'll wipe it off for you.

"Hmph. Who are you to be telling me what to do?"

"I'm the one that's healing your wounds. And if you don't straighten up your act, you can just heal yourself," Celica scolds.

"...Fine."

"Celica. Really, it's fine! I don't mind at all."

"It's not fine. It isn't fair to you Noel and Jin should know better."

"You're starting to sound more like his mother," Noel jokes. After Noel says that, an image flashes in the back of Jin's mind. One that he's seen before.

_I swear, she reminds me a lot of the Sister back from the orphanage. _Jin thinks. The thought of it made him a little nauseous, "I'm just going to lay down for a bit. I'm starting to feel woozy."

"O.K. Jin. Just take your time and relax," Celica says. Noel looks at the battered thaumaturge.

"Too bad Ms. Litchi isn't here. She could probably fix Jin up, no problem."

"Ms. Litchi?" Celica asks.

"Yes. She ran a clinic in a place called Orient Town over in Kagutsuchi. She could really work wonders." Suddenly the door behind them burst open and the scruffy ninja himself, Bang Shishigami, came flying in.

"DID SOMEONE SAY MS. LITCHI?!" Bang yells, "WHERE?!" Jin sits back up and chucks his pillow at him.

"Don't you ever shut up?!" The pillow nails Bang straight in the face and knocks him flat to his back.

"Oh! My apologies Lord Kisaragi! I didn't realize this was the medical room. It's good to see you have finally woken up from your seven day slumber!"

"Wait, SEVEN DAYS?!" Jin turned to Celica, "You told me I was out for only a few!"

"I didn't know! I thought it was only three!"

"How could you lose track of time so easily?! I mean there's a clock right there!" Jin yells pointing at the wall behind him.

"I'm sorry!" Celica cries. Jin lies back and sighs.

"Do we know anything about my brother's whereabouts?" The room gets quiet quick at the mention of Ragna. The tension was so heavy that Noel felt like she could collapse at any moment, but the silence was finally broken by Celica.

"No. He's been missing and we can't find him anywhere." Jin growls at hearing this.

"Only if I could get up. I could go search for him right now and finally put him out of his misery." Rachel Alucard steps in, overhearing Jin's words.

"Oh, is that so, Mr. Hero?"

"Rachel? What do you want?"

"I just want to help in any way I can," the vampire says with a slight smile, "I believe I know of a way to get you back up on your feet in no time,"

"And that is?"

"I'm glad you asked. Valkenhayn. Can you come here for a moment?" No more than a second later, a portal opens and the smell of roses wafts through the air. Rachel Alucard's butler, Valkenhayn R. Hellsing, steps through and the portal closes.

"Sorry for the delay, Madame," Valkenhayn greets with a bow, "What is it that you need?"

"This poor fool of a man seems to have gone and gotten himself hurt again. Do you think you can fix him?"

"Oh no…" Jin says

"But of course, Madame. I will get to work immediately," Valkenhayn says turning to Jin.

"Oh, please. Anything but that!" Jin cries.

"Thank you, Valkenhayn."

"Don't you dare touch me, you old fool!"

"Now, Mr. Kisaragi, if you would be so kind as to hold still for a minute or so. I promise this won't be nearly as excruciating as before."

"Like I'm going to let you lay a single finger on me after last time!" Suddenly, the door opened once more, and Gannon walks in looking quite irritated. He pops his fingers, knuckles, neck, and shoulders as he walks over to Jin. Everyone just stares at him until Jin pipes up,

"Who are you?"

"..." Gannon says nothing and he reaches down and flips Jin over to his stomach.

"H-hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Gannon says nothing and he places a palm on the top of Jin's spine and his other hand on top of it, then pushes down really hard.

_C-C-C-C-CRACK! _Jin yells out in pain as his spine pops from the force being pushed down on it. Gannon moves his palm a little further down Jin's spine and pushes down again.

_C-C-C-C-CRACK! _Jin's spine pops again. Gannon continues to do this all the way down his back, each time getting a little less painful. After it was over, Jin actually felt less tense. Gannon then turns Jin over on his side and crosses his arms. He puts one hand on Jin's top shoulder and the other behind where his legs were, and pushed his shoulder forward. Jin's entire spine popped all the way down. Gannon then flipped Jin over and did the same to the other side. After he finished, Gannon turned, left the room, and closed the door. Jin then sat up, feeling a hundred times better. All the pain had just flushed out of him. He began to stand up.

"Jin!" Celica cries. Jin gets to his feet and twists his back a couple of times.

"Wow. I feel no pain at all," Jin mutters. Everyone stares at him in amazement.

"Interesting," Rachel says, "Looks like all that Jin needed after being healed up was a chiropractor."

"Sorry I could not be of service, Madame…" Valkenhayn says sorrowfully.

"It is quite alright, Valkenhayn. There is nothing to be at fault over,"

"Thank you, madame. Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to the castle. The scones should be ready in just a minute," Valkenhayn says with a bow. The portal opens back up behind him and he turns and steps through it. The portal closes, leaving the scent of roses in the air. Jin then begins to head out the door. Noel steps after him.

"Jin, where you are you going?"

"Where do you think?" Jin turns back to the door and a crude smiles creeps up his cheeks, "I'm going to find brother!" And saying that, Jin steps through door and leaves.

**That sums up chapter 3 of the story! I hope you're enjoying it. If you've read this far, I'm going to assume that you are. A lot of dialogue in this one, I know. It just sort of ended up flowing that way. This chapter was also a little more comedic than I originally meant it to be, but it ended up playing out better this way. Remember to favorite and leave your thoughts in the review section below! Until next time, I bid you farewell.**


	5. Chapter 4-Lost Flower

**Welcome to the fourth chapter of Blazblue: Caliginous Ultimatum! I just keep getting more and more excited as I write these chapters. It's just really fun to do in my spare time and it's cool to see the views start rising as I post more chapters. The story just broke 1,000 views! I hope you are all enjoying this as much as I am. I do not own any of the characters (except any personal OC's I might throw in), the story, the name, or anything involving Blazblue. All rights go to Arc System Works. Enjoy the story!**

**Chapter 4**

**Lost Flower**

The winds howled in empty streets of the 15th Hierarchical City of Torifune, which was once so filled with life as students of the NOL Military Academy bustled about doing different things from going to school, shopping, or just spending time with friends after a hard day of training and studying. Now the city lay bare and cold, completely devoid of any life. Tsubaki Yayoi, a former student to this academy, decided to come for a visit on her search for Ragna the Bloodedge. It had been so long since she had been in the city. As she walked the streets of Torifune, she looked around, remembering all the things she had done together with her friends at what places. The game store where Makoto tried to teach Noel how to play an old board game. The spa building where her, Noel, and Makoto had their spa day once every break to unwind and relax. She even recognized the spot where she had dropped her favorite hair clip while trying to put it on and bounced into a sewer drain. Makoto immediately threw the manhole cover skyward and dived down to retrieve it. Luckily it didn't land in the mucky water down below.

She continued walking until she arrived at the Academy. So many memories there too. She decided to go take a look inside. She wandered the halls for a while, recognizing her old classes that she had. She eventually found her way to the cafeteria. One of the only outstanding memories she had here was when Noel had to cook lunch for one of the school days. Everyone that ate it ended up in the nurses office except one girl they were friends with named Mai Natsume. She actually ended up enjoying it. Tsubaki hadn't even thought about her in ages.

_I wonder how she's doing? Or if she is even in this world anymore… _Tsubaki thought to herself. As she was lost in thought, she could have sworn something brushed past her leg. The next thing she knew, someone or something had reached around from behind and started groping her breasts.

"EEEEEEEEEEEK!" Tsubaki screamed as soon as her mind processed what was happening. She leaped forward and spun around to find two glowing orbs and a sharp-toothed grin peering from the shadow of a cat-eared hood.

"What's the matter, Red Lady? It's only Tao, meow! And I have to say, you're boobies are as bouncy and squishy as ever!" The Kaka says. Tsubaki looks at Tao in surprise but is eventually relieved to see it was her and not some creep.

"Tao, what are you doing here? And HOW did you get in here?"

"The same way you did. Through the front door!"

"Not what I meant… And that doesn't answer my other question."

"There was another question?! When did this happen, meow?!

"The same time I asked the other question."

"There was ANOTHER one?! Tao is getting confused neow!"

"What are you doing here?" Tsubaki asked, starting to get irritated by that cat's lack of attention span.

"Oh! Tao got hungry! So I started looking around for food and found this place! There's a lot of food here so Tao will share with you if you're hungry," Tao says with a cheshire cat grin. Tsubaki looks at the Kaka cat's face and can't help but smile. The innocent look on Tao's face was enough to convince her in having a meal with the strange feline. When Tsubaki went back into the freezer, she found there was plenty of pre-cooked meals that she could heat up and eat. She picked one that seemed the most appetizing to her and stuck in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Taokaka didn't waste any time heating them up and tore right through the packaging, eating the food as it was. While they were eating, Tao tried to say something to Tsubaki, but her mouth was too full to make anything out, "Oh! Duhv ow teh ooh uhvoo suh geh yeh?"

"Tao, for someone that eats so much, you would think you would have better manners by now. It is rude to talk with your mouth full," Tsubaki scolds. Tao swallows the massive amount of food she had stuffed in her cheeks and tries again,

"Tao knows. Sorry about that, meow. I just asking if I told about Shy Girl yet, meow?

"Shy Girl?"

"Yeah! There was this girl Tao found sleeping on the floor in the hall! She's very shy and doesn't talk much, and I think she may be scared of Tao. You wanna meet her?"

"Yes. I would like that very much."

"Then follow Tao, meow!" The speedy Kaka flew off like the wind before Tsubaki was even on her feet. Tsubaki took off after her into the hallway afraid that she had lost her, but found her a few doors down. Tsubaki caught up to see Tao peeking in through the door window, "She's in here, meow," Tao whispers. Tsubaki peeks in to see a little girl with short, white hair pulled back into a ponytail covered in what appeared to be a small black blanket. She was sitting against a wall, just staring off into space. Tsubaki knocked on the door and poked her head in. The girl looked up and became fear struck when she saw Tsubaki, sliding herself into the back corner of the room.

"No, no! It's ok. I'm a friend." Tsubaki says, trying to calm the girl down.

"No you're not! You're another monster trying to get me like last time!" The girl shouts.

"Monster? Why do you think I'm a monster?"

"Because you are! And I don't trust you!" Tsubaki steps all the way into the room and sits down on the opposite wall. The girl just stares at her. As Tsubaki looks at the blanket the girl had wrapped around her, she saw that it wasn't really a blanket but a long sleeved shirt with a white stripe going down the middle. It looked oddly familiar.

"Can I ask you something? Where did you happen to get that shirt you have around you?"

"I'm not telling you anything, monster," the girl replies, "The tall man saved me from the first monsters that came after me and told me to be careful and not trust anyone!"

"The tall man?"

"Yes. I don't know his name, so I call him the tall man. He saved me and gave me one of his extra shirt to keep warm. I wanted to go with him after he saved, but he said it would be too dangerous," Tsubaki began to think about who this man could be. She couldn't quite piece it together just yet, she needed a bit more information.

"Can you tell me what this tall man looks like?"

"He's tall, has cool looking white hair, and mismatched eyes. He had a red coat and a giant sword!" Upon hearing this Tao pops her head in,

"Hey! That sounds just like Good Guy!" Tsubaki looks at Tao suspiciously. If the person the girl described was really Ragna the Bloodedge, why would Tao call him "Good Guy"?

"Good Guy? Do you mean Ragna the Bloodedge?"

"Yup! Good ol' Rawrgna, meow!" Tsubaki looks at Tao even more puzzled.

"Tao, I think you're confused. Ragna isn't a "Good Guy". He's a villain."

"What? I think Red Lady is the one that's confused. Good Guy is a good guy! He plays with Tao, buys Tao food when I'm hungry, we even share a napping spot!" Tsubaki was having trouble processing all this. Ragna the Bloodedge, the SS class criminal with the highest bounty in history, couldn't possibly be as kind and generous as these two were describing. Especially after what he did to Jin. Was she missing some piece of information about him? That had to be it. She felt so lost right now, but decided to focus on the task at hand. This little girl is one of the Chosen of the Azure. She needed to get her back to Ikaruga as soon as possible. However, she would lose all of her progress on tracking Ragna. She decided getting the girl to a safe place should be first priority. She was suddenly snapped out of her train of thought when the girl started talking to Tao,

"Wait, you know the tall man?"

"Yup! Me and Good Guy go WAY back, meow!"

"Really?!"

"Yeah! Red Lady knows Good Guy too!"

"You know him too?" The girl looks at Tsubaki in wonder, "I guess you're not a monster after all!" Tsubaki was trying to think of a way to get the girl to get off that subject and gain her trust, but looks like Tao did that part for her. She gave the girl an awkward smile,

"Well, yes a little. But, I don't know much about him. We've never had a chance to formally speak."

"That's ok," The little girl replied, "My name is Clara!"

"A pleasure to meet you, Clara. I'm Tsubaki Yayoi."

"And Tao is Taokaka!" Tao chimes in. Tsubaki and Clara laugh a little bit and Tao looks at them a little puzzled, "What's so funny? Did Tao miss a funny joke?"

"No, don't worry, Tao. It was nothing," Tsubaki replies, trying to stifle her chuckles.

"Oh, ok!" After Tsubaki and Clara had finally got their chuckling under control, Clara looks up at Tsubaki,

"So, what do we do now?"

"Well, we need to get you to a safe place. There is this place called Ikaruga. Ever heard of it?"

"Wasn't Ikaruga destroyed in some sort of war with the NOL?"

"Yes. Very good," Tsubaki says with a smile, "The 5th Hierarchical City of Ibukido was the center stage for the Ikaruga Civil War or also known as the Second War of Ars Magus. The areas that Ibukido had obtained during the war was part of the Ikaruga Federation and later became known simply as Ikaruga. However, since then, some of Ikaruga had been repaired to some extent. The NOL branch there is perfectly intact. There are more people back there staying at the branch."

"So I'll be safer there?" Clara asks.

"Yup, so no more monsters can try and get you," Tsubaki said giving Clara's stomach a tickle. Clara giggled and covered her stomach with her arms, "Uh oh, someones ticklish!" Tsubaki started to tickles Clara's sides and stomach as Clara tried to cover herself up while laughing uncontrollably. Tsubaki eventually stopped after Clara's face was turning red from laughing so hard.

"Hey! That wasn't nice, meanie!" Clara said with a cute smile after getting herself under control.

"That's what happens when you're ticklish! Now, come on. I need to get you to Ikaruga." The Clara takes Tsubaki's hand and they begin to walk out the door with Tao close in tow. Before they exit the building, Clara stops,

"We shouldn't go out there," she says.

"Why not? Is something the matter?"

"Oh boy. Tao smells trouble! And a LOT of it, meow!"

"What's going on?" Tsubaki asks. She was completely in the dark, but somehow these two sensed something she didn't.

"They're coming back. The monsters." Tsubaki cracks open the door to peek outside. At first she didn't see anything, but soon, dark figures started appearing off in the distance.

_So these were the monsters she was talking about._ As they got closer, she was able to start making out certain features. Some of them were completely covered or made out of some black, gooey substance, others she could make out as human but they appeared to be turning into the black substance. They were making their way towards the Academy. Tsubaki turned to Clara,

"Clara, do you remember how Ragna got rid of the monsters before?" Clara shook her head,

"I'm not sure how he did it. He just sort of showed up and they all ran away."

"Ran away? I wonder why…" Tsubaki began to think about why they would have ran away from Ragna. Could it be his Azure Grimoire?

"They're getting closer, meow!" Tsubaki looks back out again and the monsters got a lot closer really fast. Although they don't appear to be moving very fast at all. They almost looked like they were struggling just to take a step. She wondered if they could just run past them. As she looked again, she saw that they were starting to completely surround the building. Running wouldn't be an option. Then she had an idea. Tsubaki pulls out the flip phone given to her by Kokonoe so she could stay in contact and dials Kokonoe's number.

_Ring… Ring… Ri-click_

"Tsubaki, what's up? Any news on Ragna?" Kokonoe answers.

"I got a little bit of information on his whereabouts but we're in a bit of a situation."

"We're?"

"Yes. I found a little girl named Clara over at the NOL Military Academy at Torifune along with Taokaka," she explains, "and we are being surrounded by some sort of monsters made out of a black substance. We need help getting out of here because they have the place completely surrounded."

"Understood. I would use the transporter to get you back over here, but it doesn't have enough energy right now to transport three of you. Heck, it barely has enough energy for one person for one trip. I'll send a hangar from Sector Seven to go over there and give you a lift. Be on the roof in about 30 minutes."

"Roger that," Tsubaki says and then hangs up the phone, "Alright guys, we need to get the school's roof. Follow me." As Tsubaki says this, the loud bang came from the door behind them. Some of the monsters had reached the school and were trying to get in. One of them had already gotten in a different way somehow, but he still appeared to be human. The man stumbled trying to run over to them. Before he finally made it he fell to the floor at Tsubaki's feet. He turned to his back and reached up weakly, tears streaming down his horror stricken face,

"H-h… H-Help… me…" The man said and then suddenly he started screaming out in pain as his body began to steam. His skin began to dissolve and a black substance began to bubble up from underneath. His screams eventually began suffocated gargles. He began clawing at his throat and mouth as if trying to breathe. He managed to get out a final word before he was completely enveloped in the black glop, "Run… RUUUUUUN!" He shouted. He eventually began to writhe on the floor until he became completely still. Tsubaki stood there in shock for a moment until Tao grabbed her by the arm and yanked her away from the scene, carrying Clara in her other arm.

"No time for standing around, Red Lady! We need to get out NEOW!" Tao says. She was pulling Tsubaki so fast that she couldn't even get her feet on the ground to run with the beastkin. As they ran down the hallways, there was the sound of glass crashing. The monsters were making their way in through the windows. Soon after, the monsters started filling the hallways and began coming after the three. Tsubaki looked ahead to see the stairway to the roof getting closer. They were almost there. But, her hopes were dashed as monsters started blocking the exit. Tao stopped abruptly as they the monsters started to get in there way.

"Oh no! What are we going to do neow?"

"I don't know, Tao."

"Well, we need to think of something fast because the slimeys are getting closer! And thinking isn't Tao's specialty!" Suddenly something cold and wet wrapped around Tsubaki's ankle. She looked down to see one of the monsters had gotten a hold of her.

"He… p. M… eh…" The monster mouthed out.

"EEEEK!" Tsubaki cried out, "GET OFF OF ME!" She drew Izayoi and slashed at the monster's arm that had her ankle. The monster lost hold but it's arm simply reformed like nothing had happened. It reached for her again and Tsubaki sliced it once more. It reformed once again and just kept coming. "How the heck are we supposed to fight these things?! They just keep putting themselves back together no matter how many times I slice them!" Clara then points over next to Tsubaki,

"Someone's coming." Tsubaki looked to where she was pointing but saw nothing. They were in the middle of a hallway. The only thing she got out what Clara said was that someone was going to come through the wall. All of a sudden she was knocked to the floor by a couple of monsters. They began to encroach up her body, eventually making their way to her face. They started to try to open her mouth and make their way inside her nose. Then she heard a crackle of electricity and a familiar voice following,

"Back off!" The monsters that were on top of her were suddenly frozen solid, and then shattered to pieces. When she opened her eyes, Jin was standing over her holding a hand out to help her up, "Are you alright, Tsubaki?" Tsubaki looks at Jin in amazement and wonder then takes his hand.

"Yes. I'm fine. Thank you."

"What are friends for? I heard Kokonoe say you were in trouble and thought you could use my help." Tsubaki blushed a little and Jin pulled her up, "What are these things anyway?" Jin asks.

"We don't know. We have no clue as to what they are, where they came from, or why they're after us." Another monster started coming for Jin. Jin simply touched the tip of his sword onto the thing and it froze solid within a few seconds. Then he kicked the frozen monster and it shattered to pieces.

"Well, whatever they are, they don't seem to take too kindly to being frozen."

"Hey guys! There's a lot more coming from over here!" Tao warns. Jin turns around and fires an ice blade down the other end of the hall, freezing a large group of the monsters. Tao takes her free paw and slices at the monsters, shattering them to pieces once more. A large mass of them started forming behind them again.

"Arctic Dagger!" Jin shouts as he slashes his sword. An icy wind slices through the air like butter and freezes the mass of monsters. He then fires an ice blade and shatters them all. "Alright let's get to that roof," he says. He grabs Tsubaki's wrist and pulls her along with Yukianesa in his other hand. Taokaka easily keeps up with the two, hacking and slashing away at all the monsters Jin freezes along the way. Eventually, they make their way through the door to the roof, but only to find that the monsters had completely covered the place. Jin could see the Sector Seven's hangar out in the distance. He needed to get rid of the monsters fast. Then he had an idea, "Alright everyone get real close unless you fancy getting frozen." The three girls stood close behind Jin. The monsters started getting closer. Jin waited for them to get within a certain distance before he initiated his plan until finally, "Arctic Dungeon!" Jin stabs the ground and ice shards shot up in a flash, freezing everything around them. Jin draws Yukianesa from the ground and slashes the ice, shattering all the ice that had taken it's place around them. All the monsters on the roof were gone and the hangar was starting to descend to pick them up. Once it got low enough, Jin jumped up onto the hangar ramp to help everyone up. He picked up Clara from Tao and then reached to lend Tao a hand, she had already jumped up and was curling up in a seat to take a nap. Then he turned back to pull Tsubaki up. Their hands clasped together and he began to pull Tsubaki into the hangar. Suddenly, something wrapped around onto Tsubaki's waste and started pulling her back down.

"Jin!"

"Tsubaki, hang on!" With his free hand, he drew Yukianesa, and stabbed the monster that had grabbed onto Tsubaki. The monster froze and shattered apart as Jin pulled his sword out. He pulled Tsubaki the rest of the way into the hangar and the pilot closed the ramp door. Jin took a deep breath and turned to face Tsubaki, "You alrig-WAH!" Tsubaki runs into Jin and hugs him tight, tears streaming down her face.

"Jin…" She buried her forehead into his chest. Jin puts his arms around her and holds her head.

"Tsuabaki, it's alright. It's all over," Jin says, trying to comfort the sobbing girl that was starting to squeeze the life out of him.

"I know… It was just horrifying…" Tsubaki says, thinking back to when the man turned into one of the monsters. "Those monsters… they were people before they turned into those things. I saw one of them turn into those monsters. And then I thought I was going to die before you saved me."

"Tsubaki…"

"Yes, Jin?" Tsubaki looked up to see Jin's face was bright red.

"I can't… breathe…"

"Oh! I'm sorry, Jin!" She lets go of Jin and Jin takes a deep breath in. His face turns back to it's normal color.

"It's alright. However, I may need that new guy to pop my back again after that."

"New guy? You found another one?"

"Yeah. Makoto found him over in Kagutsuchi. You'll meet him when we get back." The two didn't say much else afterward the rest of the way back to Ikaruga. Tsubaki was just happy to see that Jin was ok. Eventually, she began to nod off from exhaustion. Jin eventually work her up as they started to arrive at their destination. When Tsubaki opened her eyes, she found her head lying on Jin's lap like a pillow. Her face grew as red as her hair and she shot up.

"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, Jin, I swear, I would NEVER-"

"Tsubaki, quit getting all flustered for no reason. It's alright," Jin says with a slight smile.

"How did I-?"

"You fell asleep and sort of put laid down on your own. Oh, and you talk in your sleep by the way." Tsubaki blushed even harder.

"Oh? What did I say?"

"Nothing much. Mostly it was quiet mumbles, so I couldn't really make anything out." The hangar touched down and the hangar ramp opened up. The pilot turned around and jokingly imitated an airline pilot,

"You have arrived at your destination. Make sure your seats are in their original upright positions and put your trays back up before getting out of your seat. Have a great day and thank you for flying with Sector Seven." The group thanked the pilot and made their way out of the hangar and into the NOL branch to meet back up with everyone else.

**That concludes chapter 4 of Blazblue: Caliginous Ultimatum. I hadn't originally planned for Jin to make an appearance this chapter but it just sort of fell into place rather well. Now, just to make some clarifications, yes, it's blatantly obvious that Tsubaki has a crush on Jin. CT, CS, and CP made that perfectly clear in their stories. However, it can't be safely assumed that the same goes for Jin with Tsubaki. It IS obvious that he does really care for her, but for all we know he could still see Tsubaki as just a close friend. We may never know what true feelings lye behind his cold, serious personality... Well I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you in the next one!**


	6. Chapter 5-Fists of the Heart

**Welcome to the chapter number 5 in Blazblue: Caliginous Ultimatum! I decided to start early on this chapter before I start forgetting all the ideas I was having. Also, to help give an added feel to the story, I will be posting links to certain songs from the series itself. As you read, many of you may visualize what is happening. Sound is another form of visualization that really help set the mood of the story. I'll post links to the videos as the story goes on where they would fit in best so you can copy and paste it if you want to do so (I do this to help me write the story). I do not own any of the characters (except any personal OC's I might throw in), the story, the name, music, or anything involving Blazblue. All rights go to Arc System Works. Enjoy the story!**

**Chapter 5**

**Fists of the Heart**

Hollow- watch?v=9l1J8cztoFM

Night begins to fall down upon Ikaruga. Gannon walks the hallways after eating dinner. It was quite delicious and he needed some time to walk off everything he ate (which was a lot. Him and Tao had an eating competition which ended in a draw). He began to recount everything that had happened the past couple of days. He was found by Tager and Makoto, fixed Jin's back problem, met everyone staying at the branch, and then Tsubaki, Jin, and Tao found a child named Clara. However, something was still bothering him, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Something just didn't quite feel right. He hasn't said a thing the entire time he's been here because of this feeling. He began to wonder what everyone else were beginning to think about him. It just seemed too simple. After that tragedy, being left alone in the world so suddenly. His family and friends. Everyone he cared about all vanished in a flash. Faded away into nothing. Now he has a roof over his head, fresh food and water, a warm bed to sleep in. Something in gut was pulling at him as if to tell him to get away, and that something is wrong. But, how could something be wrong? Everything was perfect. He walked down the front entrance hallway thinking to himself until his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar squirrel-tailed beast kin.

"Hey. Whatcha doin' out here by yourself? Come on over and have some fun with the group!"

"..." Gannon looks away slightly, contemplating the offer. What could possibly go wrong? Perhaps the feeling he's had was really nothing. Maybe his mind was just playing tricks on him this entire time. He sighed.

"Gannon. Is something wrong? If there is, please tell me. You don't talk to anyone, sit with other people during meals; besides that eating match with Tao earlier, or even interact with anyone here at all. Everytime I see you, you seem to off in your own little world all alone either in your room or walking the halls like right now. You got me kinda worried, bud," Makoto says in a gentle tone. Gannon opens his mouth to speak, but before anything comes out, there's a loud thump at the main entrance doors. "What was that?" Makoto says. The two turn and open the double doors next to them and something falls forward into the entry-way. A young man, barely breathing. "Oh my God! Gannon, take him to the infirmary, I'll go get help!" Makoto rushes off back to the cafeteria where everyone was hanging out. Gannon picks the boy up and hurries him over to the infirmary. He hears a loud clang hit the floor, but decides to check it out later. He lays the boy down in one of the beds and looks him over. Nothing seemed to be hurt. No bruises, scratches, or broken bones, however, he was incredibly skinny. He looked as if he hadn't eaten in days. The top half of his face was covered by his hair, but before Gannon could lift it up to take a look, Makoto and a few others burst in the room. Gannon decides to leave the room to get out their way.

He walks back down the hallway, then he remembers the loud clang from earlier when he picked the boy up. He must have been carrying something on his way up here and dropped it when Gannon picked him up. Sure enough, there was something wrapped in cloth lying on the floor where the boy had laid earlier. Gannon walked over and picked up the item. For it's size it was a little heavier than he expected. He unwrapped the cloth and found inside a pair of gauntlets. The craftsmanship was incredible. He wondered how they felt on.

MarsMars- watch?v=TEiXJj6v4VI

Front Line- watch?v=WHO6EkMv7bM

He put the gauntlets on and immediately felt a surge of power run through his veins. The gauntlets suddenly became extremely heavy, weighing Gannon down more and more. Then a voice rang inside his head,

_I've found you._

The gauntlets became even heavier, almost to the point Gannon couldn't lift them anymore.

_You. You are the one._

The gauntlets were touching the floor now. Gannon tried to pull his hands free, but the gauntlets would not let go.

_Hmm. Maybe not. If you really are the one, show me your heart. Don't let me weigh you down. Let me see your strength. Prove to me that you are the one I've been searching for all this time._

This voice that echoed in his mind was powerful, but gentle, almost ancient. However, what he was getting from what the voice had said, he was being tested of his strength, and to pass, he must use his strength to show the gauntlets how powerful he is for them to decide whether or not he is worthy of wearing them. He began to lift with all his might. For a moment the gauntlets didn't even budge, but slowly they began to rise from the ground.

_Yes. Keep going._

Gannon continued to lift, and the higher the gauntlets rose, the lighter they became. Eventually, Gannon was standing tall, and with a clench of his fists, a bright flash of light emitted from around him, and then nothing. The flash caused him to close his eyes, but when he opened them again, all he saw was darkness.

_Just as I thought. You are the one. I am Nox Nyctores-Pugnis Cordis: Archon. Call upon me and I will lend you my strength. For now, farewell. We shall meet again soon._

With that, the gauntlets dissipated into ars. Gannon's sight returned and he fell to a knee. His strength had been drained quite a bit in that event. He stood back up and shook his head. He made his way to back into the cafeteria to sit down for a little bit.

Re-stung- watch?v=1MBx1UrX3X4

In there, he found Rachel Alucard sitting at a table being served tea by her faithful butler, Valkenhayn. Gannon sat down a few seats away and leaned back to relax.

"Thank you for the tea, Valkenhayn. As always, it tastes absolutely divine," Rachel says after taking a sip.

"You are too kind, Madame Rachel. I simply made it the way you insisted. Nothing more," the butler says with a smile. Rachel takes another sip and as she does, she notices Gannon sitting nearby. He looked completely flushed. However, there was something different about him. She looks up at Valkenhayn and he seemed to notice as well. She stood up, thanked Valkenhayn once more for the tea, walked over and sat on the opposite side of Gannon. He noticed and then leaned back forward. For a couple of minutes, they didn't do anything but look at each other face to face. Eventually Rachel spoke,

"Good evening, Gannon."

"..." Gannon took a hand and rested his chin on it, staring intently at Rachel. She noticed his eyes moving ever so slightly extremely fast, only fixed on her. Most people probably would not notice such subtle movements, however Rachel could pinpoint where he was looking very clearly. Also there was the way his eyes looked. The way he was looking at her. She immediately could tell what he was doing now that she was face to face with him. It made sense as to why he hasn't said anything to anyone yet since he's been at the branch.

"Studying me, are you?" Gannon raised an eyebrow. "Is something the matter?"

"..." Gannon looked to the side, shyly trying to dodge the question.

"... I see," Rachel says, "It isn't very often I show concern for others, but if you have nothing to say, then I'm afraid I must end our little meeting. A good night to you, Gannon," Rachel gets up and begins to walk away.

"Something isn't right…" Rachel looks back over her shoulder a little surprised.

"Oh, so he does speak? I was starting to have my doubts," She turns back and sits back down where she was just a moment ago, "What seems to be bothering you?"

"I'm not sure. I can't quite put my finger on it; but is it really this simple?"

"What ever do you mean?"

"I go from having everything taken away from me, to a couple days later winding up here. It just seems too easy," Gannon explains. His brows furrowed as he began to think harder about it." A small, comforting smile spread across Rachel's lips.

"I see. You were one to work for everything in life, weren't you? You worked hard to achieve everything, and now that it's gone, it doesn't feel right having all of what we have offered to you handed right to you. Am I correct?" The furrowed look on Gannon's face slowly faded away and he started to look more relaxed.

"Yes. I guess that's the best way to put it. My parent's were always pretty hard on me about getting things done. If I did something wrong, I would never hear the end of it for a while."

"They had high expectations of you, yes?"

"Exactly. They put a lot of pressure on me to strive to be the best I could really be, and didn't want to see my talents go to waste."

"They must have loved you quite a lot if they were as strict as they were."

"Yeah. I knew this. That's why I always worked for everything. I normally did everything on my own. I just felt like other people would hold me back or get in the way of doing it the way it should be done. I guess you can say I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to certain things. However, I know it's not possible to do anything perfectly. But, I strive for it, and know that perfection will always never be obtainable, but I want to get as close to it as I can." Rachel nods in agreement.

"That is a noble goal to have," she says, "Well, if you would excuse me, I must take me leave back to the castle. There are something I must attend to," Gannon smiled and looked up at Rachel once more,

"Thanks for the talk. It helped straighten things out for me."

"I'm glad to have been of help. It was quite a pleasant conversation. You are an interesting, young gentleman, Gannon Nalaar. Perhaps we can talk another time?"

"I'm always up for a good conversation."

"That's good to know. Now, I must be off. Farewell and goodnight, Gannon." She grabs her empty teacup and the saucer it sat upon and began to stand up, then something hit Gannon that he meant to ask her about.

"Oh, Rachel, just a minute." Rachel turns towards him, about to hand her cup and saucer to Valkenhayn.

"Oh?"

"What do you know about a Nox Nyctores by the name of Pugnis Cordis: Archon?"

Mirage- watch?v=RpwWw5nrpkg

Upon hearing the name, the teacup and saucer slip from Rachel's fingers, breaking apart onto the floor. Valkenhayn's eyes grew wide and a furious look spread across his face, staring right at Gannon. With blinding speed, he flew past Rachel and picked Gannon up by his collar of his shirt.

"Where did you hear that name, boy?!" Gannon could do nothing but try to push himself up off of the butler's arm so he wouldn't get choked by his shirt.

"I… will gladly tell you… if… you... put me down," Gannon says, struggling to get the words out. Valkenhayn's harsh look softens and he gently puts Gannon back down.

"I apologize. That was rather rash of me," Valkenhayn says with a bow.

"What's the big deal about this Nox Nyctores BESIDES the fact that it's a Nox Nyctores?"

"The 'big deal' is that Pugnis Cordis is one of the most dangerous of the Nox Nyctores," Valkenhayn explains, "Pugnis Cordis: Archon is a pair of gauntlets that grants the wielder incredible strength and power. The user can raise their strength infinitely, but at the cost of putting intense strain on their body. The more the wielder increases his strength, the faster their energy becomes drained. The wielder will only feel the strain after they stop using the Pugnis Cordis, and if the user is weak enough from this strain, the Pugnis Cordis will take control of the wielder's soul, mind, and body. There was only one person to wield it and he made the mistake of trying to raise his power enough to defeat the Black Beast when the weapon was first created. However, when testing the weapon to increase his strength, he had increased his strength far beyond his own limits and he was too weak to fight against the Pugnis Cordis' control after testing them. The infernal gauntlets then tried to destroy everything in it's path. At the moment, Jubei, Nine, and I were the only ones there to put a stop to it's wrath. The weapon was considered a failure and too dangerous to use and it was locked away, never to even be spoken of again until today."

"Woah…" Gannon says trying to process everything Valkenhayn just told him, "Who was the person who used them?"

"... Belemere Glassfille... Trinity Glassfille's older brother," the butler says in a grave tone," After putting them on, he said the Pugnis Cordis was talking to him, as if it were inside his head. He later began to spout random nonsense about he wasn't worthy and that he wasn't the one. He went through with the testing anyway, however. He raised his power too much and when he stopped testing, he was completely drained of energy, almost like he just finished carrying a boulder a hundred miles on his back. Then something unexpected happened, the gauntlets formed back onto his hands after he unsummoned them. Then they took control of him and from there it was up for Jubei, Nine, and I to stop him. After the battle, the gauntlets fell off his hands. He appeared to still be alive, but his mind and his soul were lost, thrown out into the Boundary so that the gauntlets could take control. Later, Trinity, had come back and was completely and utterly heartbroken. The poor girl wanted to do anything to get her dear brother back, even search the depth of the Boundary itself, but even she knew it would be too dangerous to do so. For now, that is all that I will speak about the matter. If you will excuse me, I must clean up the shattered mess, and get Madame Rachel back home." Rachel stood quietly and had simply watched the conversation. It seems she figured Valkenhayn had the situation handled. As Valkenhayn swept up the shattered dishes, Rachel walks up to Gannon,

"If you wish to know more about the Pugnis Cordis, you should seek out Platinum the Trinity. However, I highly suggest you don't. This is a matter that you don't want to get involved in," she warns. After saying her final goodbyes, she and Valkenhayn step through a portal and vanish, leaving the scent of roses behind. After a moment of thinking about everything he was just told, he hammer punches the table. The sound of the hit echoes in the empty cafeteria.

Premonition- watch?v=XwMOHTMnBzM

"CRAP…" Gannon gets up from his chair and jogs over to his room. As he rushes through the hallways, he passes Noel.

"Hi, Gannon! What's the rush? Huh-?" As Gannon runs by a shock runs through Noel. "The Lux Sanctus… is warning me? What for?" Tsubaki walks into the hallway and passes Gannon as well.

"Good even-" A shock runs through Tsubaki as Gannon runs by as well. Tsubaki begins to get that feeling as if she stood up too fast and loses her balance a little. She puts a hand to her head.

_What was that feeling just now? _She thinks. _The Izayoi is… afraid?_

"Tsubaki!" Noel runs up to her friend, "Did you feel it too?"

"That rush? Yes, I did." Noel and Tsubaki looked at each other and understood they were both thinking the same thing. The both turned and ran after Gannon. By the time they were close to catching him, he had went into his room and locked the door. As Noel was about to knock a familiar voice came from behind them.

"So, you felt it too, huh?" The girls turn around to see Jin walking up behind them, "Isn't that the new guy's room?"

"Yes," Tsubaki answers, "We're going to try to talk to him." Noel turns back around knocks on the door.

"Gannon? It's us. Noel, Tsubaki, and Jin. Can we please come inside?" Noel asks through the door, "We just want to ask you something." Gannon says nothing. Tsubaki steps up,

"Gannon, please! This is really important! Please, open the door." Still no reply. Irritated, Jin steps up and moves the girls over to the side.

"Alright. Listen up. Like Tsubaki said, this really important. Now you will either open the door right now, or I will have to break it down my self because we are going to talk about this whether you like it or not." Jin puts his ear to the door, but hears nothing. "If that's the way you want to be…" Jin draws Yukianesa and slashes the door, freezing it in ice. He then kicks the door right off the hinges. The three walk in to find that he's not in the room and the window open. Jin walks up to the open window and looks out into the distance but spots nothing in particular. "Tch. A sneaky one, I see." Jin turns to leave but feels a shock once more, but it wasn't the same feeling as earlier. He recognized it immediately. "He's here, is he? Wonder what he wants."

Up on the roof of the branch, Gannon sits and looks up at the night sky, thinking to himself.

_Well, this is a deep hole I've dug myself into._ His thoughts were interrupted as he hears footsteps coming up from behind him.

Susano'o- watch?v=38jZjs7v7Es

"The Pugnis Cordis: Archon." Gannon quickly spins around to see a tall figure, a man in white and black armor, with long silver hair and a sword as tall as he was. Hakumen. "Why do you have that trajesty in your possession?" Gannon did nothing but stare. It's all he could do. His body wouldn't move. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.

"..."

"Answer me, or I'll be forced to slay you where you are." Gannon slowly stood up, cautiously trying not to make any sudden movements. The last thing he wanted to do is tick off one of the Six Heroes. He already did earlier today and he had a feeling Hakumen wouldn't be as merciful as Valkenhayn was. "I see. If you are to remain silent, then this is the end." Hakumen draws Okami and takes a fighting stance. He lunges forward and Gannon instinctively dives to the side and shoulder rolls, then faces back towards Hakumen. Adrenaline began pumping into Gannon's veins. He eventually calmed down his nerves and took a deep breath. He takes his own stance, sinking low to the ground, taking a knee with one hand on the ground in front of him, the other hand held up and open towards his opponent. Hakumen took a few seconds to study the unusual stance and lunged forward with Okami once more. Gannon quickly ducked down even lower to dodge the attack, then Hakumen transfers his movement into a downward swing. Gannon pushes off with the leg not on a knee and dodges to the side. Hakumen spins around throws a powerful kick. Gannon uses his other leg and fires himself forward and under Hakumen's attack. He spins around circles around Hakumen while sliding on his knee, keeping one hand on the ground and the other in the air.

Jin, Noel, and Tsubaki come through the door leading to the roof of the branch building. Noel and Tsubaki look in shock as they see Hakumen attacking Gannon. Tsubaki begins to step forward,

"Mr. Hakum-" Jin puts an arm out to keep her back.

"Don't interrupt him. He senses it too… I'm interested to see how this plays out."

"Jin! If we don't stop them he's going to kill Gannon!" Tsubaki argues. Noel puts a hand on Tsubaki's shoulder.

"Jin's right. As much as I hate to, we need to stay back. Hakumen is one of the Six Heroes, he wouldn't attack Gannon without reason." Tsubaki looked at Noel and her expression became saddened. She knew Noel was right. She just didn't want to feel so helpless to help a friend.

Hakumen and Gannon squared off for a moment. Luckily, Gannon had been able to dodge Hakumen's attacks, but he was starting to get wore down. He couldn't keep running forever. Hakumen stood there and studied Gannon once more.

"Hmm… Interesting," he says, "It is difficult to judge where to strike while you are in that stance. Also you are able to stay small and compact but keep your maneuverability. Because of this you are able to react quickly to dodge my attacks while saving your energy. However, something concerns me." Hakumen sheaths his blade and stands. "You are in possession of the Pugnis Cordis: Archon, yet you do not use them to fight back. Why is this so?" Gannon comes out of his stance but stays on a knee to catch his breath.

"Power. Power is a dangerous thing. It messes with the minds of people and corrupts any that don't know how to use it the way it should be used. After someone has had a taste of what power is, they become greedy. No. They become addicted," Gannon explains, "I've seen it happen myself. I don't want to become what I've seen."

"..."

"..." Gannon and Hakumen stare at each other for what seemed like an eternity before Hakumen finally turned around, his hair whipping around in the cold night wind.

"You are wiser than I originally anticipated… Very well. You may keep the Pugnis Chordis." Gannon relaxes and let's out a sigh of relief. "However…" Gannon looks back up at Hakumen, raising a brow. "If you do not keep to your wish, if you let the power run to your head like you fear, I will not hesitate to strike you down." Gannon stands up from where he was sitting.

"I understand."

"Good." Hakumen walks off and leaps from the roof without saying another word. Gannon straightens himself out and leaps back down to the balcony of his room. Jin relaxes as the two disappeared from the roof.

"Pugnis Chordis… Where have I heard that name before?" Noel turns to Tsubaki,

"Tsubaki! Let's go downstairs and make sure Gannon's ok!" Tsubaki nods in agreement and the two start to head off before Jin speaks up,

"Don't bother. It would be better to let him rest. I'm sure he has enough on his tray as it is without you two going down and bugging him. We'll talk to him tomorrow."

"Aw…" the girls say. Noel perks up,

"I've got an idea! I'll make him breakfast tomorrow morning! He'll feel great in no time!" Tsubaki and Jin eyes both grow wide and they turn to Noel,

"NOOOO!" But it was too late. Noel had already ran off to get ingredients…

**Noel's Death Cooking… *shudders* Well, anyway, that concludes chapter 5 of the story. I'm going to posting more chapters as soon as I can. I'll try to get chapters out anywhere between a few days at a time to a couple of weeks. If I take longer than two weeks than I apologize. But, I hope you're enjoying the story so far! I would love to hear what you all think about it, so leaving a review would be greatly appreciated. If you like the story be sure to favorite and follow! Also I hope you like the whole music idea. I would see that some of you think it would be too much of a hassle to even bother with, but I figured it would be something cool to add in. As always, I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 6-A Twist of Fate

**Welcome to chapter 6 of Blazblue: Caliginous Ultimatum! Nothing to really say at the moment. Just going to get right to the story! Just be sure to look at the note I make at the bottom of the story either before or after you read through it. I do not own any of the characters (except any personal OC's I might throw in), the story, the name, music, or anything involving Blazblue. All rights go to Arc System Works. Enjoy the story!**

**Chapter 6**

**A Twist of Fate**

Lakeside- watch?v=8JrS-Aq6gg8

Bullet wakes up from a long night's rest in the forest, the cinders of her fire still hot and smoking. She sits up, stretches out her arms and yawns. However, she stretches a little too hard and her right lat (latissimus) muscle cramps up. She immediately falls down to her back to try and lay on the cramp so it works itself out.

"Ow! Owowowowow! Oooh, that hurts! Crap!" Eventually the cramp finally loosens back up and she relaxes, "Oh man, that sucked. I'm probably not drinking enough water. And sleeping the ground isn't helping either…" She stands up and stretches out her back and then her legs. She begins to think back to everything that had just happened. It's been a few days now, but she still can't believe all the events that have taken place. She lost track of Kokonoe in all the mess along with Relius Clover. It ticks her off just thinking about it. They were both right in front her and she let them slip through her fingers just like that. The only thing she knew was that they still had to be in this part of Ikaruga. Her thoughts were interrupted by the grumbling of her stomach. She looked in her bag to see what food she had, but unfortunately she seemed to have run out of things to eat last night (which wasn't much to begin with). She sighed and her stomach growled again. The wind picked up a little and the smell of food cooking filled the air."What the..? What is this smell?" Bullet sniffed the air a couple of times to pick up more of the scent. "It smells… _really_ good…" Bullet follows the delicious scent through the forest until she finally comes upon a small fire with what appeared to be an omelet cooking over it on a metal skillet. Tending to the flames was a small, hooded, cat-like creature. His clothes were torn and scorched and his left leg appeared to be wrapped and splinted. It looked like he had just gotten out of a rough situation. However, one thing that really amazed Bullet was the fact that the beastkin had TWO tails. She watched the beastkin for a few seconds before she noticed the beastkin's ear twitch.

"Are ya gonna come out or what? I noticed ya there a while ago, missy." Bullet, surprised by him noticing her presence, took a small step back. She was amazed. He didn't even turn around and he knew she was there the entire time. Just who was this guy? The beastkin peeked over his shoulder and looked right at bullet. Only it wasn't a beastkin. It was an actual cat. "Well? Ya comin' out or what? Passed ya on my way through here last night and noticed you were outta food. I figured ya might wander over here once ya smelled food cookin', so I made ya breakfast."

"Huh?" Bullet walked out of her spot and sat over next to the strange cat. She studied him more closely. He had black and white fur, but it was really matted and bloodied, and he also had an eye-patch over his right eye. The cat hobbled to his feet and handed a plate over to Bullet and slid the omelet onto the plate. The cat gave Bullet a fork and sat back down.

"I hope yer hungery. I made my special." Bullet pokes the omelet with her fork, worried about what's inside. For all she knew, it would probably be filled some sort of cat food. She took herself a small bite and was hit with a sensation of flavors all at once.

"Woah!" she said, her mouth still full.

"Somethin' wrong?"

"No! No, no, not at all! It was just a lot better than what I expected."

"Because I'm a cat." Bullet stopped for a moment and felt a little guilty. It was true, but she didn't want to offend him, especially after he made her food out of his own good will. "Haha! Don't worry about it! It's only natural that whatcha think. Trust me, it happens ALL the time." The cat said with a truly genuine smile. The cat studied Bullet for a bit and spoke up once more,

"Yer a mercenary, huh?" Bullet looked at him a little puzzled,

"Uh, yes. How did you-?

"I'd recognize that uniform just about anywhere."

"Oh. If you know about my troop, then do you know someone by the name of Kokonoe?" The cat's expression saddened a little at hearing the name and he looked to the ground.

"Yeah, I'd reckon so. But not as well as I should."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I AM her father after all." Bullet's eyes grew wide in shock at hearing this news.

"WOAH, WOAH, WOAH! Slow down a second. YOU are the father of Sector Seven's lead scientist Kokonoe?!"

"Yup. That's another way of putting what I just said."

"Just who are you? I mean really."

"The name's Jubei." Bullet's eyes grew even wider and her mouth dropped.

"Wait. Jubei. Like the one from the Six Heroes during the Dark War? You're that Jubei?"

"When I last checked, yes."

"And you're a cat."

"Yep."

"You're not joking?"

"Nope." Something suddenly urged Bullet to reach out poke one of Jubei's ears. "... What did ya say yer name was?"

"Oh, um, Bullet, sir."

"Bullet, do me a favor."

"Yes, sir?"

"Bend forward."

"Oh, sure. But wh-OWW!" As she leans forward, Jubei clubs her hard over the head, "WHAT WAS THAT FOR, HUH?" She yells, holding the back of her head.

_sigh _"Kids these days. Don't know how to respect their elders." Jubei looks up at the sky and smirks, "Heh heh."

"What's so funny?!"

"This really takes me back. This is just like that time…" Bullet gives Jubei a skeptical look.

"What time?"

"Wha? Oh yeah, sorry. Just thinkin' back. I was sayin' this is just like when I first met Ragna."

"Ragna as in Ragna the Bloodedge?"

"Yep. He was a bit younger than you at the time, but I clubbed him the exact same way."

"Did you know him well?" Bullet asks. She had only met Ragna a couple of times. Both of those times ended in some argument.

"Of course. I trained him myself." Bullet sort of glared at him at hearing this.

"You're just full of surprises aren't you…"

"More than you will ever know." Bullet began to think back to the tournament that was hosted by Kagura. She watched Ragna fight the Azrael, the Mad Dog of Sector Seven. He didn't seem to do much better than she did besides getting cut out of the fight before it even finished.

"How strong is he?"

"Ragna? There's a reason he has the highest bounty ever in history by the NOL."

"I mean, he didn't look like the Ragna the Bloodedge I'd been hearing about when I saw him."

"Eh, that boy has the power to destroy the world if he wanted to. But, he chooses not to use that power."

"You mean the Azure Grimoire?"

"Yeah. He's grown quite a bit over the years. He finally understands that the Azure Grimoire isn't his power to control."

"It isn't? But he possesses it's power doesn't he?"

"The Azure Grimoire isn't some weapon that ya can throw around, like some sword. It's alive. It lives, it breathes, it eats. Something that can't be controlled. It's a heavy burden that Ragna is forced to carry. Now that boy has went and gotten himself into heaps of trouble. Heh. Not too surprised. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened. Ragna wouldn't be here right now and neither would we if it weren't for that Noel Vermillion. Ragna can be a stubborn, pain in the ass, and he may be a tough to deal with sometimes, but in the end he always come through." Jubei smiles thinking about the times he spent with Ragna during training. He almost wishes he was still back in those times. Those were good times. Everything still made a little sense. Going by what Jubei said, Ragna was a better guy than Bullet gave him credit for. Her mind switched back to the other topic at hand.

"So, do you know where I can find Kokonoe?"

"I reckon she might be over at the Ikaruga NOL branch not too far from here. Other than that, I have not clue, but that seems to be the most likely place to find her." Bullet stands up and faces Jubei.

"Thanks. I need to find her as soon as possible. I have some questions for her."

"Not a problem at all. Actually, mind if I come with ya? There's someone I need to meet with myself that is likely in the same place if Kokonoe is where I think she is."

"Oh, um. No, I suppose it would be fine." Jubei slowly stands up, packs up his things, and walks over to a tree where there seemed to be a makeshift crutch leaned against it. Jubei picks up the piece of wood and tucks it under his left arm. He hobbles over to Bullet and gives her the ok, saying he was all set. Bullet, however, couldn't help but pity the poor old cat. Also at the rate he moved with that crutch, it would take them the entire day to get somewhere that's only an hour's worth of walking. She kneels down next to Jubei,

"Climb on."

"Huh?" Jubei gives Bullet a stern, puzzled look.

"I said climb on. We're never reach the branch with you hurt like this." Jubei raised a brow (or at least where his brow would be)

"You doubtin' my ability, missy?" Jubei smirks.

"Well… No. That's not what I meant..."

"Hmm… How about we make this fun? A little race? First one to the branch is the winner." Bullet looks at him a little concerned.

"Um. Are you sure? You don't look like you're in the greatest of shape. No offense."

"Heh. None taken. Ya up for the challenge or what?" Bullet smirks and a serious expression spreads across her face.

RUN- watch?v=-hbNZmhYXMY

"Alright. You're on!" Jubei leans over and picks up a rock.

"The race starts once this rock hits the ground." Jubei throws the rock up and the air and as soon as it hit the ground, Bullet takes off like a rocket, bobbing and weaving her way through the forest, passed trees, jumping over logs and ditches. She looked back and saw Jubei hobbling way behind her. She was in great condition, being able to sprint for long periods of time without breaking a sweat. After about fifteen minutes of running, she found the NOL branch straight ahead. She was almost there, and Jubei was nowhere in sight. She began running up the steps, but when she got to the top, Jubei was waiting there looking rather disappointed.

"How in the…"

_sigh _"Come on, missy. I thought you'd be a little faster than that."

"When did you get here?"

Lakeside- watch?v=8JrS-Aq6gg8

"About ten minutes ago." Bullet's jaw dropped again, "I used to race with Ragna all the time and he could at least keep up for a majority of the time after some training. You, girl, need some work." As Jubei says that, a shirtless, young man comes running around the corner at the bottom of the stairs, drenched in sweat. The boy sprints up the stairs, and once he reached the top he ran right back down again then ran around the other end of the other side. "Yeah, ya should do what that boy's been doin'. He's ran around the entire building and been up and down these steps a few times ever since I got here. That's a pretty good workout if ya ask me. Builds strength, endurance, and cardio." After a few minutes, Bullet watched the young man run up the steps again. He seemed to be pretty fit. The boy reached the top and dropped down and began doing clapping push ups, only he pushed up and clapped behind his back and then in front of him before putting his hands back on the ground to land. It was a new take on an old exercise she used to do when training with the other mercenaries all those years back. Bullet turns to Jubei once more,

"Sir, you said I needed work. And you trained Ragna the Bloodedge, correct?"

"Yeah. And before you start gettin' any ideas, I know exactly where this is goin'."

"Oh. So, will you?

"Normally, I would agree to. However, this body's getting a little too old to be training new pupils. And I'm already a little to beat up right now to even start if I wanted to."

"Oh… Alright. I was just curious." Bullet looked away, slightly embarrassed. Normally she doesn't open up to people like that. And being turned down after opening up to someone kind of made her a little sad. However, she didn't really show it, but deep down she knew that's how she felt about the situation. The boy stood up and began to stretch out.

"Now," Jubei says to Bullet, "By the looks of ya, you're probably pretty independent, the type that likes to do things by yerself. Just understand that there are plenty of other people out there that can train ya to get stronger. But, I ain't the one to do it. I ain't meant to." Jubei stands up from where he was sitting. "Now let's go see if we can find Kokonoe." Before they begin to walk into the building, Bullet stops as she notices the young man intently staring at her and Jubei. She gives him a glare,

"What are you looking at?" The young man says nothing but raises a brow, but the stare remains unhindered. Jubei stops and gives the boy a quick glance.

_Hakumen wasn't kiddin' about that youngin'. He's got them alright. No doubt about it. Musashi is distressed. _Jubei thinks to himself. Jubei turns back to start going inside the building when there was a huge explosion.

Front Line- watch?v=WHO6EkMv7bM

The young man, surprised by the explosion, lost his balance and began to fall back towards the steps. Bullet rushed over and caught a hold of his wrist.

"Gotcha!" The young man grabbed hold of Bullet's wrist and Bullet leaned him back up to his feet. "You alright, kid?"

"Yup." The boy says with a nod.

"Dammit, Kokonoe. The hell did you do this time?" Jubei hurries in, Bullet and the young man following right behind. As they started to run over to where the explosion came from, they saw Iron Tager with a fire hose screwed into one of his hands and water was blasting out of the other, putting out the last bits of the fire.

"All right. That should just about do it." Tager says. The young man walks up to Tager.

"What the heck happened?!" Gannon turns around and looks down, noticing the young man that had approached him.

"Ah, Gannon! I'm pretty sure that you can take a good guess as to what happened.

"Obviously, I meant WHAT happened."

"Oh. Kokonoe was working on some sort of invention when I last checked. Couldn't really tell what it was. I'm guessing she decided to test it just now." Gannon sighed.

"Well. There goes most of the dormitory wing."

"I'm sure Kokonoe is already working on a solution." Gannon wasn't too comfortable hearing this. He was kind of worried as to what that solution was. Suddenly Kokonoe, storms around the corner grumbling to herself. She notices Tager,

"Tager, gather everyone in the cafeteria. I've got some things I need to explain." She says furiously.

"Roger that. Everyone is actually already in the cafeteria eating breakfast except for Gannon here."

"Alright. That works then." Kokonoe looks over slightly and sees Jubei, "Awww, SHIT! As if I had enough on my plate this morning already. What the living hell do YOU want?!" Jubei gives her daughter a small smile.

"Nice to see ya too." Kokonoe studies Jubei more carefully.

"Wow. Don't you look like shit. What happened to you of all people? Takes a lot to get you like this." Jubei's face becomes solemn.

Pinky Promise- watch?v=xdmVfNJ2vEY

"..." Jubei stares at the floor and says nothing. Kokonoe's look softens as she thinks about it.

"Oh… It was her, wasn't it…" Jubei sighs.

"Where's Celica…"

"Check the infirmary. Some kid wandered over here last night in pretty bad shape. Celica was taking care of him last I checked. Without saying another word, Jubei turns around and begins to limp away, his tails dragging against the floor.

"Dad."

"Eh?" Jubei says looking over his shoulder.

"Other way. Third door on the right."

"Oh… Yeah… right…" Jubei turns back around goes where Kokonoe directed. Kokonoe sighs and turns back to the group.

"Well, I suppose I already know why you're here, Bullet." Bullet's face becomes stern.

"You better know…" Kokonoe takes a catnip sucker out of her pocket and unwraps it.

"Well, at this point, I suppose there wouldn't be any harm in telling you what I know. But, like I said before. I don't know much. But, I do know some things that you'll definitely be interested in hearing. However, I don't have time to tell you right now. I've got work to do. And a LOT of explaining…"

"Why you…"

"Don't get your panties in a knot. I'll tell you all I can later. Now's just not a good time. For now, it would probably be best if you stayed here at the branch until then. There's fresh food and drink in the cafeteria. You and Gannon go ahead and grab something to eat."

"Ummm…" Gannon says pointing a thumb at the giant gap where most of the dormitory wing used to be.

"Yeah, I'm going to explaining what I've got planned for that until I get that fixed over in the cafeteria in a few minutes." Gannon nodded and he showed Bullet the way to the cafeteria.

Flos- watch?v=I9sEwOfZSYc

In the cafeteria, everyone was hanging out, eating their meals; some of them still in their pajamas. Gannon went through and got himself some cereal, a banana, orange juice, and a bottle of water. Bullet just grabs a bottle of water and sits down next to Gannon.

"Aren't you getting anything to eat?" Gannon asks after drinking some water.

"No. I'm fine. I already ate." Gannon shrugs and drinks the rest of the bottle down. He starts eating his food when Noel Vermillion walks up with a plate that had… something… on it…

"Hi, Gannon! I made some food for you! Figured you might be tired after what happened last night, so I made you a meal to help you feel better!" Gannon looks at the "food" and then looks to both sides of him to see that EVERYONE except him and Bullet had moved to the complete opposite ends of the table. Gannon looks back towards Noel,

"Oh, ok. Not really too hungry right now. But I'll give it a try." Everyone in the room jumped from their chairs.

"NO, DON'T!" Everyone shouts. But it was too late, Gannon had already took a bite. A sour look spread across Gannon's face.

"Hmmmm… There's onions in here isn't there…" Gannon asks.

"Hm? Yes. Do you not like them?"

"Nope… The only thing besides that is that it could use some salt… and hot sauce…" Everyone stared at Gannon in amazement (not including Bullet and Noel), jaws dropped.

"That's the only thing that bothers him?!" Everyone says. Noel smiles.

"Ok. I'll make sure not to put onions in it next time!" She notices Bullet sitting next to him, "Oh, hello! I haven't seen you before. What's your name?" Bullet perks up and eyes become wide after she realizes Noel was talking to her.

"Oh! Um, Bullet. My name is Bullet."

"Bullet? That's an interesting name. I'm Noel Vermillion! It's nice to meet you." Bullet sort of freezes up. She wasn't used to this kind of attention.

"Um… Nice to meet you… too…" Bullet replies. Noel slides the plate over to Bullet.

"Would like some too?"

"Oh no. Thanks, but I'm not real hungry right now." Noel frowns a bit.

"Aw, ok. Maybe another time." Noel walks off and tries to get others to try the "meal" she made when Kokonoe walks in and stands at the front of the room.

"Alright, everyone! Listen up! I'm only going over this once, so you better pay attention." The room quiets down and Kokonoe clears her throat, "Now as you probably all know, one of my inventions went a little wry and destroyed most of the dormitory wing of the building. Heck, probably? If you don't know about it then you're either are stupid or were at the opposite end of this planet." Hearing this, Tao pokes her head up.

"Explosion, meow?"

"My point exactly. Now, as more and more people start coming in, we'll be at a loss of living space. So I've divided everyone excluding people like me, Kagura, and Tager who don't stay in the dorms into pairs as roommates so we can have more room until repairs are finished. I've made a list of who should room with who based on certain reasons. For instance Noel and Makoto are rooming together since they get along and I can count on them to take care of themselves… Mostly…" Makoto and Noel cheer and give each other a high five. "And Tsubaki you will be rooming with Clara because I trust you are most capable of taking care of her since she's still as young as she is. Last thing we need a is a ten year old without some sort of supervision getting into trouble or getting herself hurt."

"Understood." Tsubaki says.

"Here's the list. Everyone check who your roommate is and decide whose room you'll be sharing." Everyone gathered around the list to see who was with who. The list read:

**Room Division List**

-Tsubaki and Clara (take good care of her Tsubaki)

-Jin and Bang (please, for the love of God, don't kill each other)

-Celica (alone for research reasons. Don't want external factors messing things up)

-Taokaka (you don't really need a room. I find you sleeping just about anywhere anyway)

-Gannon and Bullet (you're the last ones left and I don't care to fix the list based on gender. Just don't do anything stupid. If you know what I mean :3)

Decide who's going to be the one switching rooms. If I have to do it myself, then there are going to be some serious issues between us.

Comedy- watch?v=cnIR3Mv9CJ8

After everyone looked at the list, everyone started talking with their assigned roommate. Everyone except Gannon and Bullet who just stared at the list in dumbfoundedness. Bullet then snatched the list up and stormed over to Kokonoe.

"What the hell is this?! You stick me in a room with a guy and to top it all off you make that rude comment at the end!" A cheshire cat smile crept up on Kokonoe's lips.

"Oh yeah, heheh. What's the matter? Can't take a joke? Come on. I know that I'm a total jerk-ass, but sometimes I need to loosen up and joke around from time to time."

"That's not something you joke about! And now, I think you BROKE Gannon!" Bullet pointed to the one of the tables where Gannon sat down at, who was banging his head against the table every couple of seconds.

"Why… Just... why…" he said. Kokonoe looks over to where she's pointing, watches Gannon for a little and shrugs.

"Eh. He'll get over it soon enough."

"Grrrrrr! I'm going to kill you! He's just a kid!"

"Actually, he's 18." Bullet looks at Kokonoe puzzled, glances back and forth between her and Gannon and then,

"Wait, seriously? He looks a little younger than that."

"Yeah, but only a little. He looks to be maybe 16 or 17. But I've confirmed that he is most definitely, without a doubt, 18 years old. This is probably due to his condition."

"Condition? Is something wrong with him?"

"No. Not that sort of condition. He just takes really good care of himself. He exercises regularly, eats healthily, doesn't do any sort of drugs, doesn't smoke or drink. He also says that he rarely ever gets sick and when he does, he says he's almost always gets over it overnight or within the next day or two. Because of this, his body physically is 18 but he takes such good care of himself that some of his maturing features, mostly pertaining to his face, haven't quite caught up. There's a good chance he'll live a nice long life as long as he doesn't get himself killed."

"Ah. I see." Bullet looks back at Gannon (who was still banging his head on the table) a little impressed at this.

"And you don't have much room to talk either. What are you, about 20?"

"Um, yes. Why?"

"Well besides having a very mature breast size for your age, just going by some of your features, you have a "younger than you look" feel about you too. But, it's a little too close to determine the time difference between your age and how you look considering you have some other mature features as well due to your physique." Bullet began to think back to when she saw Gannon exercising earlier this morning. He did have an athletic build but nothing really outstanding that she could remember. Kokonoe starts to speak again, "Now, Gannon on the other hand. His body kind of works a little weird. After running some tests, his muscle mass isn't really well displayed unless he is in a situation that causes his adrenaline to start pumping. During the tests, something buttons were accidently pressed and things started going haywire in the testing room where Gannon was. I was finally able to gather the data on muscle mass to strength ratios for him. The adrenaline, like in anyone, caused a fight or flight response in his body, forcing his body to automatically switch into survival mode. And OH BOY. That kid had some muscle tone that would put Tager to shame in some areas." Kokonoe finished with a snide cat smile. "I guess you could say that just standing there, he doesn't look like much. But he's a LOT physically stronger than he looks until he really gets going."

"Huh. Never heard anything like that before." Bullet said.

"Well, anyway. You two should be fine. He's pretty respectable. I doubt if he'll try to make any moves on you while you room together. Also, don't worry about having to share a bed. I can be mean, but even I know where not to cross the line. Everyone actually has their own bed to sleep in."

"Hmm. Ok. I guess it shouldn't be too bad then…"

"Alright. I'll leave the rest to you two." As Kokonoe and Bullet turn to leave another detail hits Kokonoe. "Oh yeah. Hey, Bullet! Just a sec."

"Hm?"

"One thing I forgot to mention. Now that I think about it, he DOES actually have a condition. Something I picked up from his behavior now that he's opened up to everyone is that there is something off about him mentally. The closest thing I could diagnose is something called Asperger's Syndrome."

"Asperger's Syndrome? Never heard of it. Is it dangerous?"

"Well it isn't something that you can catch. Here's a little science lesson for ya. He was born with a high functioning form of Autism, a mental condition characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts. Asperger's Syndrome is a developmental disorder related to autism and characterized by higher than average intellectual ability coupled with impaired social skills and restrictive, repetitive patterns of interest and activities. So he may be a little tough to handle when trying to get to know him since he doesn't he's not good with interacting with other people. Heck, most of the time you'll find him alone by himself because he doesn't know how to interact sometimes. However, once he gets to know you, he'll open up just fine. That's the all that I think you'd specifically need to know about him before you start rooming together. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get back to my lab so I fix the giant hole in the building." And with that, Kokonoe leaves. Bullet looks back at Gannon who was STILL banging his head on the table. She scratches her head,

"Oh boy. What did I get mixed into?"

**That concludes chapter 6 of the story. Now when it came to trying to figure out the age of the characters that were already in the story, I just had to make estimations. For Bullet's age, (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong) she said she started training with the mercenaries about 10 years ago when she was a little girl. So I just made an estimate that she would be about ten years old at the youngest when she started training. So, her estimated age when she started training plus 10 years would put her at around 20 years old. The only thing I could find for her birthday was that she was born on August 2 (which is also Pants Day in Japan [ironically]). Now as for the rooming thing, I do not intend this to end up in some sort of sexual story between Gannon and Bullet. It was simply done for laughs. The last thing I want is to ruin the story with that because it isn't what this story is about. Go to the Rated M section for that. Also when I was making the list for the story, they were also the last two that didn't have a roommate when I was writing things down. Just wanted to clear that up before people start taking the story the wrong way.**


	8. Chapter 7-Time Heals All Wounds

**Well, as of now, I'm going to have to come at the music idea with a new approach. The links are being cut out once I post the chapters and you can't copy and paste the content to begin with sooo, yeah. Now I'm just going to post what you want to put in the YouTube search box for each song. Sorry about that. I do not own any of the characters (except any personal OC's I might throw in), the story, the name, music, or anything involving Blazblue. All rights go to Arc System Works. Enjoy the story!**

**Chapter 7**

**Time Heals All Wounds**

*Blazblue Lakeside* (search for song on YouTube if you wish for the added music effect in case you skipped the headnote)

Jubei lies in the infirmary, Celica healing him to the best of her ability. She was having some difficulty since his wounds were magically inflicted. She knew what happened the minute he walked in the room. Nine, her sister, was returned from the Boundary and had attacked Jubei. Jubei was too stunned to defend himself and took a full on blow of Nine's magic. It was amazing that he was able to survive such an attack. Celica had finally finished after a couple hours of hard work.

_phew _"That should about do it. You're good to go!" Jubei jumped up feeling great. His wounds had closed completely and his broken leg mended.

"Thanks, Celica! I feel brand new!"

"It's no problem at all. Come back anytime you need me!" Hearing her say that made Jubei think back to the past again.

"Heheh. Just like the old days, eh?"

"Mmhm!" Celica agreed, knowing what he was referring to. Jubei turned to Celica after stretching out a bit.

"Well, sorry to leave so soon, but there's an old friend of mine that I gotta find." Celica frowns a little.

"Aw. You can't stay for a little while longer? You just got here!"

"Trust me. I would if I could. But, there's a lot to do and a little time to do it."

"Alright. Just be sure to come back when you can!"

"Heh. Sure thing, Celica," Jubei says with a smile. Then he walks to the door and leaves Celica alone with the unconscious patient in the other bed. Nothing appeared to be wrong with him. He just won't wake up. And he's most definitely sleeping, Celica knew that for sure. She got up and left the room to walk around for a bit. Everyone has been so busy moving things to different rooms ever since Kokonoe did the room assignments. Gannon and Bullet were already finished considering they didn't have a lot to move since everything Bullet had on her was in her bag. They were sort of just sitting on their beds, silently staring off into space as if neither of them knew how to talk. She passed by Noel and Makoto who were trying to move a trunk of Makoto's things into Noel's room.

"It's… so… heavy!" Noel grunted out, obviously having difficulty trying to keep her side from dropping.

"Aw, come on, Noellers! It's not that heavy. Ya just gotta put your mind to it is all!" Makoto replies, lifting her end with one arm with no problem at all.

"Easy… for you… to say! You're a lot… stronger… than me!" Celica sees Tsubaki and Clara playing "Patty Cake" in their room. Clara didn't have much to move in either. Tao was sleeping right in the middle of the floor, pretty much being in the way. Bang seemed to agree to stay in Jin's room. It seemed natural for a good-natured person like him to not want to trouble someone by having them move their things, so he gladly accepted to do it instead. She was so glad to see everyone was getting along so well. She started looking around for the one person she hadn't seen yet and then remembered.

*Blazblue Pinky Promise*

"Oh yeah… Ragna isn't here…" She mumbles to herself. She really missed Ragna. She wished there was something that she could do to help him. After what happened that day, she couldn't forgive herself for what happened to Ragna. Now he's out in the world, being controlled by Izanami. He was dying, and there is nothing she can do about it. There just had to be away to save him. She became lost in her thoughts and ran right into Tager.

"Hm?" Tager turns around to see what just bumped into him and sees Celica. "Oh! Hello, Celica. Are you alright?"

"Yes, Tager. Thanks…" Tager raises a brow.

"You seem down. Is something the matter?"

"Huh? No, no. It's nothing…"

"Hmmm." Celica starts getting uncomfortable with Tager staring at her and gives in.

"Ok. Um. I was just wondering… Do you think that there's a way to… save Ragna?"

"At this point, it's very unlikely. He is dying of seithr poisoning. The Azure Grimoire that had manifested itself onto him as his right arm is spreading throughout his body and slowly killing him as we speak. I doubt if we will be able to cure him."

"Oh… Ok. I was just curious…" Celica went around and asked anyone that would know the answer the same question. Each one of them said the same thing as Tager in one way or another. Celica went to her room, lost in her thoughts. She was completely out of sorts today after thinking about Ragna. It saddened her hearing from everyone she asked that Ragna was going to die. Rachel said that they needed to put him down their selves, which depressed her even more. The longer she thought about, the closer she became to the verge of crying.

_He worked so hard, trying to do everything he could, everything in his power to protect me. And now he's gone… _Celica thought to herself. Then she came to a sudden decision. _He worked hard to protect me. So now, it's MY turn to protect HIM! I WILL find a way to save him! I must! Ragna is a good boy. He doesn't deserve such a cruel fate! There must be a way to save him. _She laid face down on her bed and hugged her pillow. _I will see Ragna again. _Her thoughts were interrupted with a knock at the door. "Huh? Oh. Come in!" Clara steps through with a blank stare on her face.

"Something bad is coming." Celica gets to her feet.

"What do you mean?"

"There is danger coming from over there soon," Clara points at the wall. However, Celica got the feeling she meant in that direction outside the building. She rushes out of the room and goes out to where Clara was referring to. But when she got there, she saw nothing. What did Clara mean? Was she just making stuff up? She WAS only a little girl, afterall.

*Blazblue OST Raise yorufriki*

She went to go back inside, but then she felt the ground begin to rumble. She turned around again to see someone out in the distance in red, white, and green robes. A rock spire shot from the ground right at Celica. From behind her Tager charged the spire before it hit her.

"Bolt Tackle!" He hits the spire and destroys it. He stands up, "Hm. Is this… alchemy?" The earth around the hooded robed figure rose up and boulders were lobbed right at the branch. "Crap! There's too many for me to stop!" Tager makes his way to one of the boulders and throws a hard right at it, smashing it to bits, turns and fires a spark bolt, destroying another. More boulders started flying past Tager faster than he could get to them. _Well, that's more repairs for Kokonoe to fix. She's not going to be in good mood for a while… _Tager thinks, but from the upper level balconies, Noel and a few other stood ready.

"Optic Barrel!" Noel fires Bolverk, sending an explosive blast at one of the boulders. Hitting its mark, the boulder explodes. Bullet puts a foot on the balcony railing and pulls back a fist. A boulder came right at her and once it came within range, she gave it a nice hard hit and smashed it. Jin, Gannon, and Bang leapt out of the balcony together. Jin draws Yukianesa,

"Blades of Ice!" He shouts, sending a volley of ice blades at some of the boulders, destroying them. Bang leaps from one boulder to another, destroying each of them with a single punch. Gannon leapt right at one and grabbed a hold of it, span it around, and threw it at another boulder, destroying both simultaneously. Noel destroyed a few more boulders using her Optic Barrel. Gannon was having trouble keeping up since he wouldn't be able to punch a boulder without breaking his hand and he kept having to fall back to the balcony after each throw. Bang and Bullet both had gauntlets so they were fine. Gannon remembered he had Archon. But he didn't want to use it. Then an idea occurred to him. The Archon is able to raise your power infinitely, but at the cost of your energy being drained after use. What if he were to use them just a regular pair of gauntlets? Nothing ever said he HAD to increase his strength. All he needed right now was some protection. He decided it was worth a try. He willed Archon to appear like how he saw Noel call for Bolverk. Sure enough, the gauntlets formed around his hands and appeared in a mass of ars. He ran and leapt off the balcony once more. Only this time it wasn't at a boulder. Instead he leapt down to Tager.

"Hey, Tager. I need ya to do something."

"Huh? What is it? I'm a little busy right now." He says as he fires another Spark Bolt and destroys another boulder. Gannon points at larger boulder that had just been fired from the robed figure.

"You see that boulder?"

"Yes. What of it?"

"I want you to throw me as hard as you can right at it." Tager looks at him a little shocked.

"What?"

"You heard me. Just do it." Tager becomes a little puzzled but nods. He grabs Gannon and calculates Gannon's weight, the distance from where they were to the boulder, how fast the boulder was moving, wind direction, ect. Then he shot-puts Gannon and Gannon flies, fists first, right at the boulder. The only thing everyone heard for the next few seconds was the explosions of boulders and Gannon going: "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Gannon collides with the boulder and demolishes it. Gannon lands on the ground and runs back to Tager. "THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!" Tager chuckles a little but turns his gaze back to the boulders.

"Well as fun as that may have been, I don't think we'll have another. Look." Gannon looks to where Tager is pointing and a lot more boulders started flying at them. There was no way they would be able to keep up.

Bang destroys another boulder and notices the giant wave of rocks coming their way. He growls.

"It looks like I'm going to have to take things up a notch!" Bang lands on the ground and takes a stance. "Quicker than wind and as still as the forest. Hotter than flames and MORE MAGNIFICENT THAN A MOUNTAIN! Shishigami-Ninpo Forbidden Art…"

*Blazblue Beat a Nail With Your Hammer*

The earth began to rumble under Bang's feet and undying flame of burning passion surrounded him. He leaps into the air with a sudden burst of energy, the earth shattering around him in his wake and the flames intensified tremendously

"FU-RIN-KA-ZAN!" Bang zoomed boulder to boulder. No one could keep an eye on him to watch where he was for very long. A great number of them were destroyed almost simultaneously. Everyone watched in amazement as Bang destroyed boulder after boulder. The giant wave was almost completely gone in less than a minute. Bang destroyed one more boulder and air dashed straight for the hooded figure after he was close enough. "Let's finish THIIIIIIS!" Bang roared. However, right before he went to deal what would have been a devastating blow to the target, a rock pillar fired forward and hit him hard in the gut. He was sent flying back halfway across the battlefield. After a few seconds, he didn't get up. Gannon went out there to check on him. When he got over to where he landed, Bang was coughing and wheezing, holding his stomach.

"Got the wind knocked out of ya?"

_COUGH COUGH _"Yeah…" Gannon looks up and another volley of boulders begin to take form. He picks Bang up and fireman's carries him back to the branch.

*To Glory* (Gannon's Theme)

He sets Bang down in the grass and makes his way to Tager.

"Alright, Tager. I need ya to do something for me again." Tager looks at him skeptically.

"What is it this time?" Gannon crosses his arms and looks out at the robed person out in the distance.

"As we are now, we're sitting ducks. This person we're facing has some major firepower being able to throw this boulders at us constantly. The only way we can stop this is if we can get a nice clean shot right at the guy. If we can take the person out then the boulders will stop and the person will be incapacitated. Two birds, one stone. I need you to throw me right at the person so I can take the guy out." Tager pushed up his glasses.

"Hm. An impressive plan of action. But, what happens if the target puts up a pillar like he did with Bang?"

"I'll take care of that. Just toss me." Tager picks Gannon up and does all the calculations once more. Then he launches Gannon at the person at the opposite end of the battlefield. "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Gannon yells. The robed person notices Gannon and waits for him to get near. The figure then throws up another rock spire to intercept Gannon. Gannon summons Archon once more and thrusts his fists forward.

"What?!" the figure says as Gannon blasts through the spire. Gannon tackles the robed figure, and they tumble and roll across the ground. The boulders that were being risen from the ground fell back down. As the two rolled Gannon managed to get a foothold on the ground. He dropped his level down and drove the top of his hard into the person's sternum, hitting the robed figure in a hard blast double-leg. However, the person's chest was really… soft… After driving the person to the ground, Gannon pushed off and somersaults out of it the hold. The person rolled up to their feet. And under the hood, Gannon saw that the person was a girl. She had deep, blue-green eyes and thick, reddish brown hair that protruded from the front of her hood. The girl takes a look at Gannon and smiles. Gannon takes his regular stance. His feet shoulder-width apart in a staggered formation, his elbows at his sides and his hands faced open. The girl chuckles a little, "Well. Now I'm not so mad about you putting your head in my boobs, seeing how cute you are up close." Gannon glares at her,

"You being a girl is no excuse for poor technique," he replies. Although, this, in his mind, was true he didn't even know she was girl when he double legged her to begin with. The girl took her hood off, letting her long, full hair flow down to her shoulder blades, and seductively puts her index finger on her bottom lip, trying to make herself look innocent.

"Aw, lighten up. What's with the scary face? Girls aren't going to want to get to know you if you're so serious, you know." Gannon growls,

"It's funny that you actually think I give a crap. Why are you attacking us?" The girl looks at Gannon a little puzzled. Usually the innocent look tactic catches any guy she fights against off guard.

Back at the branch everyone is trying to figure out as to what was going on out in the distance. Noel calls down from the balcony she was standing on,

"Mr. Tager! Can you tell what's happening?" Tager uses is optical zoom to get a better look at the situation.

"It seems they are squaring off and talking to one another. Gannon is likely trying to get some answers. Kokonoe comes around the corner of the building with some wiring, a projector, and a screen.

"Figured this would be a good time to pull this out." She sets up the projector and the screen and hooks the wires into Tager's back and connects them to the projector.

"Wha-? Hey! Kokonoe! What are you doing?" The next thing that happened after Kokonoe put the last plug into the projector, she flipped it on and on the screen was an image of what Tager was looking at. Everyone "ooh'd" and were happy that they could see what was going on now.

"There! That's better," Kokonoe says, "Alright, I'll be right back. I got some popcorn that should be finished cooking back in the kitchen." With that she runs back inside to get her popcorn.

Gannon glared at the robed girl,

"I asked you once, and I'll ask you again. Why are you attacking us?" The girl put a hand on her hip.

"Don't act like you don't know. You guys are the ones that made all the people disappear. And I'm going to make you pay!" The girl punches the ground and rock pillars fire up, shooting up taller and taller as they neared Gannon. Gannon shoulder rolled out of the way,

"Wait, what? That wasn't us!" The girl put a hand out and an alchemy circle glowed around Gannon. Shards of stone shot up and sliced his clothes and skin. He dive rolls out of the alchemy circle, his body bleeding a little from the cuts he got from the last attack. He tore his shirt off because it was getting in the way and was almost completely torn to shreds anyway, so it wasn't like he was going to keep it afterward. Kokonoe perked up as she saw this, coming back from getting her popcorn.

"Oh, yeah! Shit just got real!" Even Rachel getting in on the action. She hadn't come out to see what was going on until she sensed a powerful presence. She didn't get a chance to see where it was coming from, however. She looked on the screen and realized what she was sensing. On the fists of Gannon was the Pugnis Chordis: Archon. Nago looks up at Rachel to see the shock on her face,

"Princess, not to sound rude, but you somehow look paler than you usually do. Are you feeling alright?" Rachel's hands were trembling, which was something Rachel never let's them do. It wasn't lady-like at all. However, she couldn't help it as she thought about the devastation that was brought about the last time she those wretched gauntlets. Jin, who was standing next to her, realized what she was looking at. He decided it would be best to tell her about Gannon's encounter with Hakumen, and began to explain. Kokonoe was munching on her popcorn and she turned to Bullet,

"See? Doesn't look like there's much to him on normal circumstances, but now look at him! This is gonna be awesome! Bullet looked back to the screen and studied Gannon. Kokonoe was right. Gannon looked a lot different. But not just physically. There was something else to him. The look in eyes, his stance, his overall demeanor. It was almost animal-like; even his fingers were curled up as if they were claws. She could honestly say that he looked a little intimidating.

"You actually expect me to believe that?" The girl says to Gannon. She throws both hands out and two smaller alchemy circles appeared on either of Gannon's sides. Two rock pillars shot up and encased his wrists, holding his arms upward. He struggled against the binds but wasn't having much luck. The girl walked up to him and caressed his chest and sides. The touch felt weird to Gannon and it sent a chill up his back. He gasped and his body tensed up then forcibly relaxed. The girl then put her arms around Gannon and gently placed her hands on his back, her face getting close to his, pressing her chest on him. "I will kill everyone for what they did. However, if you play nice, I might be nice enough to let you live if you come with me." The girl said with a smile. Gannon simply glared at her.

"Really. This is a bit cliche, doncha think?" He says before he rears his head back and headbutts the girl hard in the forehead. The girl looked up at Gannon in complete shock after recovering from the hit.

_No way… He's really tough to get through to. _She got up and grabbed a hold of Gannon's chin and smiled.

"Cliche? Why do I care? Who's winning right now, hmm?" Gannon hated to admit it, but she did have the upper hand right now. He was completely immobilized. There had to be some way to get free. An idea occurred to him. But, it was the last thing he wanted to do. He wasn't strong enough to break free alone, unfortunately, and if he didn't get out soon, who knows what this creep would do to him. A thought ran across his mind and he immediately shuddered thinking about it.

_Aw, CRAAAP. Now that image is stuck in my head! _The girl licked her lips,

"Heh. You're going to pay for headbutting me like that. Toying with you is going to be fun…" Gannon snapped out of it and put his mind back on the situation at hand. Looks like he had no other choice. It was do or die time.

_Archon! Need a little help here! _As he thinks this, he feels power start to flow through him. With a good pull at the pillars he breaks free and wraps his arms around the girl, squeezing her tight and tackling her to the ground. They tumbled backwards again, and Gannon managed to sit on top of her stomach and pin her to the ground, a hand clasped on her throat and his other hand clenched in a fist, raised high above them ready to strike at any moment. The girl blushed, looking at how they were.

"Hmm," she said with a smile, "I have to say, I kind of like this position." She pops Gannon in the chin with her fist and slides under him, coming out from behind him. Gannon spins around shoots in low at her, sliding on his and then coming up. He brings an open palm and clubs her in the side of the head and grabbing hold, then doing the same with the other hand. He brings his head back and headbutts her again; blood begins to trickle down her forehead. Still hanging onto the sides of her head, she snaps her head down and brings a knee up hard, knocking her out. She falls flat on her back, and Gannon picks her up and slings her over his shoulder.

"This is what happens when you screw around in a fight. You get hurt," Gannon says as he begins to walk back to the branch.

**That concludes chapter 7 of the story. Finally got to put in a fighting scene where Gannon had to use his Nox Nyctores. I decided to add that new character in there because, it just goes to show that there are people that are like that in the world. One of them just happened to be part of the story. I'm going to try and focus on more of the other characters in future chapters as the story has focused a lot on Gannon lately (which I hadn't meant to happen). I hope you are enjoying the story so far, and as alway I will see you in the next chapter!**


	9. Chapter 8-Chained

**Welcome to chapter 8 of Blazblue: Caliginous Ultimatum. I hope you're all enjoying the story so far. Something I want to point out to people that want to add their own OC's into the story. If you have really specific details about your character that could affect the story of Blazblue as a whole, please check to make sure that these details won't cause any plot holes. Kinda ran into this issue not too long ago and I don't want you to ask me to try and fit in a character and end up disappointed. I do not own any of the characters (except any personal OC's I might throw in), the story, the name, music, or anything involving Blazblue. All rights go to Arc System Works. Enjoy the story!**

**Chapter 8**

**Chained**

*Blazblue Limited Again*

The sun begins to set upon the horizon at the Imperator's Palace. Izanami sits on the throne in silence. Almost everything was going according to plan. She had Ragna the Bloodedge under her control now that he was fused with Izanagi and the people of the world were being reduced to seithr by the Embryo; she was in control of everything. Soon, her plan to end the universe and bring all to nothing will be fully realized. All those who opposed her, the Chrono Phantasma, would not be able to stop her. However, something was nagging at the back of her mind. It was what Rachel Alucard had said in their last encounter,

"_Then I shall present you with life. And I think that would be your end." _Izanami shrugged off the thought. What Rachel said had to be completely metaphorical. There was no meaning behind it besides trying to confuse her. She continued to sit in silence, patiently waiting for the time to come to bring the end of the world and the universe. Her thoughts were interrupted as Ragna came through the large double doors leading into the throne room. He had been gone for a few days. He said he was going out on a walk. Izanagi watches him has he starts to walk by.

"Where did you disappear to for so long, hm?" Ragna didn't even look back at her.

"Tch." Ragna scoffed. Izanagi became a little irritated. She did not like to be ignored, especially by someone as low as him. She put up a barrier in front of Ragna. He stopped before he ran into it.

"You are merely my humble servant, Ragna the Bloodedge. It is not wise to ignore me."

"..." Ragna silently stands where he was stopped. Izanami floats over in front of him and studies his face. His demeanor didn't seem to be angry like usual. He appeared to be sad in some manner.

"You appear to be more... down than usual. Could something be the matter?"

"Hmph… Why do you care?"

"I don't. I was simply curious as to what could be ailing you." Ragna says nothing in response. Usually she'd get some snide remark or hotheaded comeback. Something definitely wasn't right with him today. It was strange. Usually she did not worry about the conditions of others, but for some reason, she couldn't help but feel a strong urge to find out what was wrong. She reached out and put a gentle hand on his cheek, but he turned away. She pulled her hand back. She had no idea as to why she did that. It almost impulsive, and she could have swore that she actually felt a little hurt when he turned away. She closes her eyes and turns around. "Very well. I will leave you be… Brother," She taunts playfully. She expected him to get infuriated, however when she looked back around, he was already halfway down the hall. She felt a twinge of infuriation. She squinted her eyes Ragna, but turns away once more. She sits back upon her throne, more irritated than she was before. "How bothersome."

*Blazblue Mirage vgm*

Ragna the Bloodedge closes the door to the room he normally slept in. He takes off his jacket and shirt then looks at his right arm. The Azure was spreading further. It was starting to cover the side of his chest now.

"To think it all came down to this…" He says. Being fused with Nu, he could hear her thoughts in his head,

"_Is something wrong, Ragna?" _Ragna became a little startled, hearing her voice in his head so suddenly.

"Ugh, God damn it, Nu! No. I'm fine."

"_Are you sure, Ragna? Is seems to Nu like something is wrong."_

"Nu… Just… Just shut up… I don't want to talk right now, ok?" Ragna could feel Nu become sad.

"_Did Nu do something wrong, Ragna?"_

"Don't even get me started…" Anger began to swell up inside of Ragna as he thinks back. He gets her out of that monstrosity, Take-Mikazuchi. Then she quite literally stabs him in the back. Although, he can't say he isn't too surprised. If only he hadn't told Celica to heal her. Things might have gone a little better from there. Now he's stuck with Izanami being able to mind control him whenever she wanted and the Azure Grimoire going haywire inside his body, slowly killing him. He felt so powerless. He wanted to break free, go back to the way things were. But he knew he couldn't do that. If he tried to fight back or escape, Izanami could just snatch him back under her control. There had to be a way. A way to save himself. To save everyone.

"_Ranga…" _Nu says.

"What now?"

"_Nu… Nu wants be with you… forever and ever." _Ragna growls.

"Yeah, I know. You've said that a THOUSAND times now."

"_Nu knows… But… Nu really means it you know…"_ Ragna felt Nu sadden even more, "_Nu doesn't like seeing Ragna so sad…" _Ragna scratched his head and sighed. He thought back to when he was fighting Terumi on top of the NOL branch in Kagutsuchi and Lambda jumped in and saved him, only when she spoke, she spoke as Nu. Ragna knew that there was good in her. He remembered what she said before she vanished.

"_Nu will... forever be... by your side... Ragna..." _He laid down in his bed. Ragna thought about what she said and chuckled. She said she would forever be by his side. But, now she was literally part of him.

"Who would have thought you meant that so literally."

"_Meant what, Ragna?" _Nu said.

"I-it's nothing. Forget it."

*Blazblue Pinky Promise*

"_Nu's confused…" _ Ragna suddenly felt a strange pull at his chest. The next thing he knew, Nu was sitting next to him. Ragna jumped and fell off the side of the bed. He got up and stared at Nu in shock,

"N-Nu! What the hell?! You can fuse out of me?!" Nu nodded, a little puzzled.

"Yes, Ragna. Nu always could. Did you not know?"

"Does it look like I knew?!"

"Ragna's Nu? I thought Nu was Nu! Is Nu not Nu anymore, Ragna?!" Ragna puts a hand on his head.

"No. Not Nu as in your name. I said knew. The other word for know." Nu's face brightened.

"OOOOhhh! Ok! Then, no. Ragna didn't look like he knew. But, it's ok! Since Ragna and Nu fused together already, Nu can become one with Ragna again anytime Nu wants!" Ragna sits on the bed and sighs.

"So why'd you come out anyways?"

"So Nu could be with Ragna!"

"Weren't you already with me when we were fused?" Ragna asked, a little confused. He's talked to Nu plenty of times, and sometimes, what she says doesn't make any sense.

"Not like THAT, silly! Nu wants to be WITH Ragna!" Ragna thought about it. He figured that she wanted to be with him physically and with him as in a part of him. He laid back down on the bed and put his arms behind his head, resting the back of his head on his hands.

"Well, I guess that sorta makes sense… A little." Nu became flustered.

"Aw! Ragna's so mean!" She says. Then she plops down and snuggles close next to Ragna. Ragna looks at her a little strangely, raising an eyebrow. "Nu… will forever be by your side… Ragna…" She yawns and slowly drifts off to sleep. Ragna sighs once more, putting an arm around the sleeping, silver-haired girl that curled up next to him, placing a hand on her shoulder. Nu subconsciously snuggles closer, sliding a hand under the arm he had around her and puts the other on his chest. Ragna twinges a bit in panic, but relaxes again. He wasn't used to this sort of thing, especially with someone that was usually throwing swords around at him. Then a thought ran across his mind.

"Huh. Didn't think Murakumo actually slept. I thought they just powered down or something…" Ragna thought about it a little more, "Well I guess not. Noel sleeps like any other human being and she's a Murakumo too… Whatever…" He watched Nu sleep for a bit. He heard her say his name a couple of times. He couldn't help but notice how peaceful she looked when she was asleep. It was definitely a big changed from when she was awake.

"Rag… na… Hehehehe!" Nu mumbles. Ragna smiles and closes his eyes, and then let's himself drift off to sleep. After a minute, Ragna starts to have a dream.

"_Geez, what a drag..." Ragna was lying on the soft grass of the field, gazing up at the sky. Dappled sunlight shines through the trees, casting a patchwork of shadows across the empty bucket sitting at the riverbank. '...Should I take a nap?' He thought to himself. He let his eyes drift shut, but a memory of those fiendish nuns floats in his head. Not a second passes before he opens his eyes again. "I can't believe they tried to time me the other day. Geez, if they have that kind of time, why don't they try and get it themselves?" A thought runs across Ragna's mind, "... Speaking of which, he was pretty quiet today." The boy's never satisfied, always giving Ragna that, "I wanna go with brother." nonsense… but Ragna hasn't heard a peep out of him today. 'Is something bothering him, or is he finally starting to grow up? I hope that's the case. Our sister's been so sick lately, I haven't been spending as much time with him.' he thinks "Oh well, I guess I'll play with 'im when I get home." With renewed vigor, he jumps to his feet and grabs his bucket. Violently swinging it through the river, he fills the pail with fresh water. "All right. Time to head home!"_

_As he walks back, a sudden rumble shakes the ground. "!? What the-" He rushes a little further ahead to see what happened. "Are you kidding me!?" He tosses the bucket aside and begins to run. "A… A fire!?" He makes his way to the church which was ablaze. "Haah, haah, haah… the church… it's- What happened? Is everyone…!?" The church was burning to the ground. Walls, crumbling. Trying to suppress his emotion, he skims the area. He sees a person's shadow on the floor-... his little sister. He desperately rushes to the slender body and holds her. "Hey! Are you all right? Wake up!"_

"_Ung… ugh…"_

"_Thank God… you're alive…" he says, "Damn it, where the hell are Jin and the old hag!? Shit! What's going on? What the hell happened here!?"_

"_Ragna…" Ragna turns around._

'_Is.. Is that Jin?' he thinks. He only sees a silhouette. He can't see his face. "...!? Jin, are you ok!? What the hell happened?"_

"_Hahah…" A sick smile escapes his brother's lips._

"_Huh? Uargh!" He doesn't know what's going on at first, but he notices something roll on the ground. His brother quietly smiles where he stands. The thing that tumbled on the floor looks out of place. In fact, it looks a lot more like a cheap toy. Its image burns itself into his mind, but his head still can't figure out what it is. His right arm is gone. The sensation finally registering, unimaginable pain takes its place. But it isn't the only he feels. It's heat. It's hot… it's burning. "AAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHH! MY ARM! AAAGGGHHH!"_

"_Oh man, you seem to be in a quite a bit of pain there, Raggy! Does it hurt? Does it? Of course, it does. Ahahahahah!" The silhouette of a man slowly comes into view. "Who, you're bleeding all over the place. You gonna die? Bite the big one? Hey, think you're gonna die?" Ragna turns his gaze back to his brother,_

"_...Jin, take Saya and run…" He shoves the pain aside long enough to choke out what he thinks is his last words._

"_It's… It's all your fault, Brother…" Ragna looks at Jin in shock._

"_What the hell are you… talking about…?" The man speaks up again,_

"_I wish I had more time to play with you, but I'm afraid I'm out of time. Damn, what a shame! Well, I don't suppose there's any harm in killing that old hag."_

"_...Ah… wait… damn you… Wai...t…"_

"_Man, oh man… don't tell me you're gonna kick the bucket already? Heeey, can you hear me? Oh well, I gotta be on my way. I'll need that little brat, though…"_

"_Good-bye, Brother…" Ragna then passes out. He wakes up to a thunderous downpour of rain._

_*Blazblue Stardust Memory*_

"_... Am I… alive?" He tries to lift his body up, but it feels like he's been nailed to the ground. So much for that. His shoulder feels like it's on fire where his arm used to be. Something deep down tells him the pain's just an illusion. "... That's right… I lost my arm…" He still can't stand up. All he can do is stare at the ruins of the church. He hears a familiar sound coming from the wreckage. "That's…" Saya's music box is sitting in the middle of the rubble. "Shit… Shit… SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" It's gone. All of it. Everything important to him is taken by the flames. His body is useless. All he can do is scream. So that's what he does… until he passes out again._

_GASP _Ragna wakes up in a cold sweat and sits up, panting for air. He puts a hand on his forehead, his pulse racing. He's had this dream before. Last time he had it was back when everything first started. After he first arrived in Kagutsuchi. Nu shuffles awake,

*Blazblue Pinky Promise*

"Unh… Hnn? Ragna…?" She yawns, being awakened from her sleep, "Is something wrong?" Ragna gets his breathing under control and calms his nerves.

_Damn it... Not this dream again. _He thinks, _I wish they'd knock it off already… Hmph._

"Ragna?" Ragna lays back down on his side, his back facing Nu.

"It's nothing... Just a bad dream is all…" He closes his eyes to go back to sleep but feels something silky brush his face. He opens his eyes to see Nu peeking over him.

"Nu had a dream too, Ragna!"

"... Is that so…"

"Yup! It was about Ragna!" She sits back on her feet, "Ragna was with Nu destroying everything! Ragna was smashing people to bits with his sword and was totally amazing!"

"... Hey, Nu."

"Hmm? Yes, Ragna?" Ragna looks over his shoulder,

"Destroying the world… is this really what you want? To end everything?"

"Of course, that's what Nu wants. Isn't that what Ragna wants?" Ragna looks back,

"Nevermind. Just forget it I asked… Go back to sleep." he says.

"Ok." Nu says with a yawn. She cuddles back up to Ragna, wrapping an arm over the top of him. Ragna could feel her forehead on his neck, her steady breathing hitting his back as she fall back to sleep.

"She really likes to get close doesn't she." Ragna shrugs and let's himself drift off to sleep once more. He slept a little more peacefully this time around. No recurring bad dreams. No rude awakenings. Just sleep. Nu did kick him a couple times, but even that didn't bother him much. He woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. However, when he tried to sit up, he found no laying face down across his stomach. "...Huh?" Nu was fast asleep still. Ragna pokes her a few times, but she doesn't budge. Eventually she lifts her and moves her over to the side. He sits up and stretches. Nu, finally wakes up and rubs her eye.

"Good morning, Ragna…" She mumbles. Ragna lays back down and relaxes for minute. He hadn't slept like that in a while. Nu lays her head on top of Ragna's chest, looking at him and smiles. Ragna smirks a little and rubs Nu's head like one would a child. "What's Ragna doing today?"

"I dunno. I might just go for a walk."

"Ok! Nu will come too!" And with that, she hugs onto Ragna and fuses back with him. Ragna gets up and changes into fresh clothes, then heads out the door. For the first time in a while, Ragna truly felt at ease.

**That concludes chapter 8 of the story. I thought it would be nice to have a little change of pace from the carnage of the last chapter, so this one was a little more peaceful. Also thought you guys would like to have a little insight on Ragna. I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. I'll see you all in the next chapter!**


	10. Chapter 9-The Alchemist and the Dragon

**Welcome to chapter 9 of Blazblue: Caliginous Ultimatum. I hope the music idea is working out alright. If anyone has any problems or a better solution, I'd be glad to hear it. Just send me a PM or leave a review. I do not own any of the characters (except any personal OC's I might throw in), the story, the name, music, or anything involving Blazblue. All rights go to Arc System Works. Enjoy the story!**

**Chapter 9**

**The Alchemist and the Dragon**

*Blazblue Pinky Promise*

"Unh…"

"..."

"...Nnh…"

"..H..y…"

"Ugh…"

"He… W..ke up…"

"Wha-?" A girl opens her eyes, finding herself in a bed in an unfamiliar place. Next to her is a girl with auburn hair tied up in a ponytail and a beat up young man with piercing, dark green eyes, his bandages specked with red in some places.

"Oh good, you're awake!" The auburn-haired girl says, "How are you feeling?"

"I-... what? Where am I?"

"You're in the infirmary of the NOL branch in Ibukido," the young man says.

_Ibukido? _The girl thinks, _When did I…_ Then the girl starts to remember everything that happened before she went out. The young man standing next to her was the cute boy she had fought before. The girl she didn't remember at all.

"What's your name?" the boy asks.

"It's… My name is Quota," she replies.

"Quota, huh? That's a nice name!" the girl says, "My name is Celica A. Mercury! But, you can just call me Celica. And that's Gannon!"

"..." Gannon just stares at Quota. Quota sits up and a sharp pain shoots out through her entire side, "You probably shouldn't move just yet. You've got some broken ribs. Sorry about that. However, with as many hits to the head you received, I'm surprised you don't have a fractured skull or a concussion."

"Well, I've been told I was a pretty hard headed woman," Quota says jokingly. She looks down to see her robes were missing and her upper body wrapped in bandages. She finds her robes hanging on a coat rack next to the door. Celica puts her hands over Quota's ribcage,

"Ok. I'm going to heal you now." With a soft glow of light, Quota could feel her bones start to mend. After about ten minutes or so, Celica finished. Quota looks at Gannon, who was still covered in cuts and gashes.

"Why haven't you done that to him?" she asks. Celica sighs,

"Oh, I've tried… But, for some reason my magic doesn't work very well on him. I tried for hours, but all I managed to do was close up a couple of his cuts before I wore myself out." Then the door behind them opens, and Rachel Alucard steps in.

*Blazblue Queen of Rose*

"That is because of the Nox Nyctores that Gannon carries. Gannon stiffens.

_Crap..._

"Nox Nyctores? He has one?" Celica asks.

"Yes. Pugnis Cordis: Archon, the fifth Nox Nyctores to be made if I am not mistaken."

"Archon… I've never heard of that one. Sis made the Nox Nyctores, but she never told me anything about Archon."

"That's because Archon's existence was to be kept a secret. Do you remember the disappearance of Belemere?" Celica's expression saddened a little.

"Yes… Are you saying that this Nox Nyctores was involved in his disappearance?"

"Indeed. Belemere was the first to wield Archon, as he was to test it. However, the side effects of using it proved too dangerous. Pugnis Cordis: Archon is able to increase the user's power and strength infinitely. Although, the more the user increases their power, more of their own energy they expend. The user doesn't feel exhaustive side effect until they stop using the weapon. If the user is weakened enough, Archon will take control of them, pushing the user's mind and soul into the Boundary. This is what happened to Belemere. Archon took control of him and tried to destroy everything. Right before the weapon was finally stopped, the words that Belemere spoke were: "He wasn't the one". Ever since then, the Archon was deemed a failure and too dangerous for anyone to use, and was sealed away, kept secret from the rest of the world. As to how it came into Gannon's possession, I have no clue…" Rachel glances over at Gannon.

_CRAP._

"...However, Jin Kisaragi explained to me about your encounter with Hakumen, Gannon. Seeing as you are still alive AND still in possession of the Archon, I will not kill you myself. Valkenhayn and I will be keeping a watchful eye on you, though. If you take one step out of line, I will personally strike you down with all the lightning I can muster." Gannon relaxed.

"Yup. I already go the message from Hakumen."

"Good. Then we are in an understanding of one another?"

"Yup."

"Very well. Then I will take my leave. That is all I wished to talk to you about," Rachel says. She turns around and walks back out the door.

"Huh," Quota says as she stands up, "That was random." She starts to take her bandages off but realizes that she had nothing on under them. She looks at Celica and then at Gannon, then shrugs. But before she starts to unwrap the bandages again, another voice comes from the door.

*Blazblue Black Aggression*

"Hey, don't be shy babe. Let those jugs loose and let all those who see bask in your beauty." Quota and Celica look up. Gannon took a second to react because he was staring off into space, probably thinking about what Rachel had just told them. Leaning against the doorway was Kagura Mutsuki and behind him stood Makoto, who promptly gave the Black Knight a hard right hook in the side.

"Will you cut that out?!" Makoto says. Kagura grabs rubs his side.

"...Owww… Seriously, Makoto. That's getting old.

"You're attitude is getting old…" Some of Kagura's hair fell into his face, and he cooly brushes back in place.

"Well, excuse me if I wanted to check on the beautiful woman that ended up in the infirmary," Kagura walks in and leans against the wall next to Quota, "Damn, babe. You're bod looks amazing! You're slender physique is complemented by your wonderful breasts. Perfectly round, not too big, not too small. Absolutely gorgeous. And you have nice ass to boot! The name's Kagura, the Black Night, head of the Mutsuki family and the Duodecim. What's your name, if I may ask?" After a couple seconds of nothing, Quota sends a swift kick to Kagura's groin. Gannon raises a brow while stifling his laughter.

"Sorry, but I don't give that information out to pervs." Quota says.

"Huh. Despite her attacking us, I'm starting to like her, already," Makoto remarks. Kagura was on the floor holding his weak spot. Quota leans down,

"And 'Kagura'? Really? A womanizer with a woman's name? How ironic." After recovering, Kagura gets up and brushes his hair to the side again.

"Like it matters what my name is? I'm badass! I can call myself Fluffy and it wouldn't change anything. Well if you won't tell me your name, at least tell me who did this to you. It's not right for anyone to beat up on a beautiful woman such as yourself." Quota points at Gannon. Kagura looks and then glares at him.

"Wazzup?" Gannon says.

"YOU did this?! I'm going to kill you for hurting this beautiful babe!"

"Deal with it, Fluffy." Celica, Quota, and Makoto chuckle a little bit at Gannon's remark.

"Call me whatever you want. Doesn't change the fact that I'm going to kick your ass!"

"Nah. I think I'll go get some lunch. I'll catch ya later," Gannon says as he gets up to leave. Kagura grabs is Zweihander and goes to swing at Gannon, but Quota give him another devastating kick, causing Kagura to fall to the floor and grab his jugular again.

"Touch him, and I will kill you. Got that?" Quota says. Hearing this, Kagura immediately gets the wrong idea,

*Blazblue Comedy*

"Oh, that clears things up. But, attacking your own girl? That's even worse, bro!" Kagura squeaks out. Celica then picks up from there,

"Wait, you two are a couple, Gannon?! Congratulations!" Celica happily exclaims.

"Woah! Way to go, Gannon! You two don't have too much fun, now! ...Well, without me, anyways," Makoto finishes, jokingly.

"Oh, GOSH!" Gannon says, facepalming, "We aren't going out! Where did you get that from, you idiot?!" Gannon says glaring at Kagura. Quota tries to make the best of the situation and frowns,

"Why would you say such a thing, sweety? Do you not love me anymore?!" she says. Kagura stands back up and glares back at Gannon,

"Dude, you're messed up. How could you deny the love you share with this woman?" Quota covers her eyes with her hands and starts fake crying, forcing tears to swell up.

"Why, Gannon? Why don't you love me? Did I do something wrong? Please! Give me another chance! I'll do anything to fix what I've done!" She starts fake sobbing, although it looked real to Kagura.

"There, there, babe," Kagura says, putting an arm around Quota's shoulder as he tries to comfort her, "The Black Knight's going to make things alright. Why don't you come back to my office and have a couple of drinks to take your mind off of things? Once you feel better, maybe we can get to know each other a little better, huh?" Quota turns and knees Kagura in the groin again, crumpling the Black Knight to the floor once again.

"What's with you?! You see a girl crying over a breakup and you try to comfort her by asking her out?! For a "knight" you're not very chivalrous!"

"Harsh…" Kagura squeaks out. Celica crosses her arms and looks up to think,

"I'm confused… Are you going out or not?"

"No. We are not in any way going out or in any sort of relationship," Gannon responds.

_sniff_ "But, sweety…" sniff "I love you!" Quota says, jumping at Gannon and wrapping him up in a hug. Gannon simply puts a hand on her face and pushes her back.

"Quit the act right now, or I'll bash your skull in…" Quota pouts and sits back down on the bed, crossing her arms,

"Alright, alright! Geez. No need for death threats, you know…"

"Don't tick me off, and you should be alright."

"Wow, you must have really been getting on his nerves for him to be like this. He's usually pretty chill," Makoto says. Kagura gets back up again after recovering from the last blow and leans against the wall, crossing his arms. Gannon sits back down in the chair he was in before and faces Quota,

"Kinda funny, really. I thought you would have jumped right at Kagura when he started hitting on you after the way you were yesterday."

"I've seen HIS type before, and I am so sick of guys like him, I could vomit. Guys are almost all the same. They seem nice and compassionate, but as soon as they get you drunk they want to get you into bed."

"So, you've been through this before, I see," Gannon says.

"No, but my mother told me to watch out for guys like him out of experience, unfortunately…"

"Wow. A babe like you, a virgin? I'm impressed," Kagura says with a smile.

"Don't you dare get any thought, perv…" Quota warns, "I have NO interest in you WHATSOEVER," she turns to Gannon and gets a seductive look in her eyes and smiles, "But, you, however, seem a lot different than all the other trash, like Mr. Pervert over there. You just seem completely uninterested, completely aloof. I can tell you have a personality that's kind, and fun, but at the same time serious just by looking at you, cutey. I wouldn't mind at all if you were my first…"

"Pssh. Hypocrite," Gannon says as he gets up and leaves the room. Kagura laughs a little bit.

"Heh. He got you pretty good there."

"... Shut up…" Kagura leans up and makes his way to the door,

*Blazblue Hollow*

"Well, I'm going to grab something to eat. You can come if you want, just in case you need someone to talk to." He steps out and closes the door, leaving the three girls alone. Quota finishes taking off her bandages, leaving her breasts exposed. She grabs her clothes that were sitting in a chair, robes from the coat rack, and gets dressed. She hangs her robes over her shoulder and walks out the door.

_So. It really wasn't these guys. _She thinks as she walks down the hallway, _They've already helped me out so much, even after I attacked them. If it wasn't these guys, then they have know who really did it. _She walks past some of the dormitories and sees Gannon in his room, sitting at a table and leaning forward as if he was looking at something. She starts to sneak in to surprise him, but she ends up being surprised when she sees another girl in there with him relaxing, lying on one of the beds with her arms behind her head and one leg crossed over the other. Quota studies the girl: short, silver hair; amber eyes; a scar across the bridge of her nose; smooth, tan skin; athletic build; powerful, thick legs with a toned, firm butt to match; but most notably of all of her features, her breasts.

_What in the world ARE those?! Is there even a size for boobs that big?! _she thought. Quota looks down at her breasts which were DD's, but they were nothing compared to that girl's. _Grr… Just look at her. She has everything a guy would want. Could they really be going out though? They don't seem the least bit interested in talking to each other. _She watches them for a little while longer. Gannon gets up and grabs the pillow from his bed, and tosses it at the girl, hitting her in the face.

"Hey, Bullet. Wake up," he says. She shoots up,

"-Huh-wha? Sir! I wasn't sleeping during drill instruction, sir! Oh, wait," she says. Gannon picks up his pillow and tosses it at her again, hitting her in the side and finally getting her attention, "Oh, you need something?"

"I'm heading out to get a bite to eat. Just checkin' to see if you were hungry,"

"By… throwing a pillow at me?"

"What? No, that was just to wake you up so I could ask if you were hungry or not."

"Oh, alright. Nah, I'm good," Bullet says.

"Suit yourself. I'll catch ya later then."

"Alright. Later, kid." Gannon rolls his eyes at being called "kid" and heads out. Quota runs around a nearby corner to hide as Gannon walks out of his room and heads the opposite direction. She peeks around the corner to see if he was gone. She could still see him, but decided he was far enough away and comes out. She had so many questions, but she didn't know who to ask. A thought came across her mind about who she could get answers from but she hated it. But, considering that the one person that she felt comfortable talking to doesn't want to talk to her, she didn't feel like she had any other option. She needed to find Kagura. He should know everything she has questions about and knowing him, he would probably give her top secret info if she asked just because he found her attractive. She went up to a pair of large double doors that she assumed was Kagura's office. She knocked on the door and waited for a response.

***Blazblue Re Stung***

"It's open!" Kagura's voice called through the door. Quota opens the doors and is immediately hit the stench of alcohol. She covered her mouth and nose until she got used to the smell. She looks over to see him lying out on his couch. Kagura perked up when he saw her walk in and smiles, "SO, you changed your mind, huh?" he says.

"In your dreams, creep."

"You were in my dreams, beautiful."

"Cut it out. I need to ask you some things."

"Go right ahead, babe. I'll answer any question you've got. I'm like an open book." He sits up, leans back, and crosses a leg, his arms stretched across the top of the couch.

"That's nice…" Quota replied dully, "So I've come to the conclusion that you guys aren't the ones that made all the people disappear or make the glop monsters appear,"

"You know about those things?"

"Yeah. Was NOT fun. Barely got away from them with my life. Now, tell me. Who DID do those things."

_sigh _"That would be Hadez Izanami, the former Imperator Librarius. I take it you're going to want to go after her because of what she did?"

"Yes."

"Don't. As of right now, even I couldn't beat her no matter how hard I tried. But, even before you get to her, you'd run into…" Kagura's voice trailed off as he became lost in thought.

"Run into who?" Kagura snaps back,

"N-nevermind. Forget I said that. The important thing is that you do NOT want to go after Izanami alone."

"But, who was the person you were mentioning before?"

"You really want to know that badly?"

"Yes. I want to know everything." Kagura sighs again,

"Well, in that case, that person you'd run into before Izanami is Ragna the Bloodedge." Quota's eyes widened at hearing the name. She knew who he was, and he knew he was strong.

_If Ragna the Bloodedge works under Izanami, does that mean she's even MORE powerful than the Grim Reaper? _Quota thinks.

"Right now, Ragna is being mind controlled by Izanami. He was originally on our side and he did some pretty amazing stuff. Even I was impressed. But, now that he's under Izanami's control, we're at a major disadvantage, especially since Ragna has gone full Black Beast mode on us. Even I wouldn't be a match for that much raw power. And that power is slowly killing him. The Azure Grimoire that he has is spreading through him, poisoning his body. We want to kill him before the Azure spreads through him entirely."

"Wait. Why? Don't you want to save him?"

"We would if we could. But if we don't do either and the Azure kills him before we can do anything, we think the Black Beast will be reborn. That's what we believe Izanami's plan is. She wants to destroy everything, and she's wants to use the Black Beast to do it. If we kill Ragna before the Azure does, then it can't spread through his body anymore and turn him into the Black Beast," Kagura explains. Quota noticed the change in his expression over time. His eyes went from lustful to serious over the course of the conversation, "The only problem is that we can't find him anywhere. Tsubaki was looking for almost a week and the only thing she found on him was a shirt he left behind with a little girl. If we don't find him soon, it could mean the end of the world." Quota sighs,

"Ok. Now on to less depressing matters…"

"Huh?"

"Gannon and Bullet. What do know about them?" The lustful look returned to Kagura's eyes at the mention of Bullet.

"Gannon, he's a bit hard to explain. He's super serious when you first meet him, but after a while he'll open up once you get to know him. He's actually pretty weird from what I've seen. I tried talking to him about girls one time, but he seemed completely lost. That kid has no experience with girls at all it seems. He told me he's never even KISSED a girl or even been in a relationship or a date of any kind. Bullet, oh man. SMOKIN'. I mean, have you seen her tits?"

"...Yes…" Quota replies looking down at her chest again. Kagura takes notice.

"Hey, don't worry about that, babe. If yours were any bigger, than they would ruin your figure. Your body's perfect the way it is," he says with a reassuring wink and a smile. Quota tried to detect any sort of pervertedness in that sentence, but she got the feeling that he actually meant it. Kagura picks up where he left off, "Anyway, as I was saying, Awesome tits, amazing ass and thighs. But, when I tried hitting on her but she had no idea what I was trying to say. She just ended up looking at me like I was crazy. Heh, I guess that's happens when a girl gets raised by guys in a military environment." This reassured Quota even more about her predicament.

_Perfect! There's no way those two could be a couple! Now, I just need to figure out how to get his attention… _She thinks. She smiles and stands up. She leans forward and places a kiss on Kagura's cheek. His eyes widen in surprise.

"Ok, not that I'm mad or anything, but what was that for?"

"To thank you for answering my first big question," she replies. She leans over and places a kiss on his other cheek, "And that one for my second. It was a big help." Kagura smiles,

"Hey, it's no problem at all. If you need anything else, come back any time. I'll be glad to help out."

"I'm surprised you did it without being a total perv."

"Do I get a thank you kiss for that?" Kagura says sarcastically. Quota giggles a little bit catching the joke. Then she thought that maybe he should get something as a reward for actually being a human being. The one thing she could think of that she thought Kagura would like wasn't something that she would normally do, be she figured that she wouldn't mind it for a little bit. Her face becomes red thinking about it.

"Ten seconds."

"What?"

"As a reward for not being a perv, you may grope them for ten seconds," Quota says nervously, referring to her breasts.

"So my reward for not being a perv is you letting me be a perv?"

"Yes…" Kagura looks at Quota a little confused, but then sighs and smiles.

"Nah. Don't worry about it. You obviously don't seem comfortable with the idea." Quota looks up surprised.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Don't try to wrap your pretty, little head around it too much, babe."

"Oh, ok then. Well, then I guess I'll get out of your way." Quota gets up from where she was sitting and began to leave.

"However…" She turns back around,

"Hmm?"

"I still haven't caught your name," Kagura says, raising a brow. Quota smirks,

"Quota. My name's Quota."

**That concludes chapter 9 of the story. Kagura FINALLY appears in the story and for what else than a pretty girl. Starting to see some character development and I was able to fit in a little bit of comedy into the mix. I hope you're all enjoying the story so far. If you like the story, help support it by favoriting and following the story. Also be sure to leave your thoughts in the reviews and feel free to ask any questions you may have and I'll gladly get back to you. If you have an OC you want to put in, let me know and I'll get back to you and give you credit on the character in the chapter it appears in if I'm able to fit it in. See you in the next chapter!**


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